Expertise and cognitive flexibility: a Musician’s Tale

Abstract

We investigated the impact of musical expertise, a major cultural learning, on domain-specific cognitive flexibility. Participants had to switch between music reading in G and F clefs. Two groups of music students at the Conservatory with various levels of expertise were compared: First-year and fifth-year students who were already engaged in professional orchestras or groups. We also contrasted pianists with other musicians, as only the former have to read in both G and F clefs when practicing their instrument. We hypothesized that pianists’ expertise in reading both clefs might enhance their cognitive flexibility from the start, which would be reflected by lower switch costs compared to other musicians in first year. We also hypothesized that, thanks to the demanding reading classes dispensed in the course of their studies, the other musicians would improve cognitive flexibility over the years, which would allow their switch costs to drop and to catch up pianists’ performance. Results confirmed our hypotheses by showing that, in first year at the Conservatory, the costs of switching were indeed lower for pianists compared to other musicians. Furthermore, the costs decreased in fifth year for the latter, with the advantage in favor of pianists not being significant anymore. Musical expertise particularly affected domain-specific cognitive flexibility when there was very few time to prepare for the next task. These results are compatible with an impact of musical expertise on reactive control, a late correction mechanism engaging attention when cognitive demands are perceived as high. Proactive control, an early selection strategy that maintains relevant information and facilitates task processing, thus appears less affected by musical expertise.