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Effects of delayed auditory and visual feedback on sequence production

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Abstract

This study represents the first systematic comparison of the relative contributions of auditory and visual feedback to sequence production. Participants learned an isochronous melody that they performed on a keyboard and attempted to perform this sequence at a prescribed rate while auditory and visual feedback were manipulated. Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) and delayed visual feedback (DVF) both tended to slow production of the sequence. These effects were additive. There was no modulation of this effect of delay in either modality by the absence of feedback in the other. In contrast with past research, DAF did not increase timing variability, though DVF did. Motion analyses ruled out differences in salience of visual feedback between delayed and non-delayed conditions as an explanation of the effects of DVF. The results suggest that the effects of delayed feedback may be attributable to both sensorimotor interference and to conflicting information across feedback channels.

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Notes

  1. Differences in mean finger length across participants were very small (SD = .43 cm) and were not significantly correlated with the effects of DAF or DVF.

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Acknowledgments

The data reported here were collected while Mr. Kulpa was a student at the University at Buffalo. This research was supported in part by National Science Foundation grant BCS-0642592. We thank Caroline Palmer, Bruno Repp, and Amir Lahav for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, New Mexico State University, 317 Science Hall, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA

    J. D. Kulpa

  2. Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, 355 Park Hall, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA

    Peter Q. Pfordresher

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  1. J. D. Kulpa
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  2. Peter Q. Pfordresher
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Correspondence to Peter Q. Pfordresher.

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Kulpa, J.D., Pfordresher, P.Q. Effects of delayed auditory and visual feedback on sequence production. Exp Brain Res 224, 69–77 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-012-3289-z

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