The best learning takes place progressively, starting from the most basic elements of the subject being taught and increasing the complexity till the learner becomes a pro. As the learner becomes familiar with the less complex elements, he or she is in a better position to move to the next level of complexity with ease.
A major challenge for piano teachers is that they are unable to tell just how far a student has mastered a particular level so they can move on to the next one. In fact, moving from one level to the next is most often determined by the lesson plans than the student’s progress – until now.
Thanks to technology, aspiring pianists can now learn their instrument of choice faster and with much more ease. Researchers at Tufts University have developed a mind-reading computer than can decipher how hard a learner’s brain is working and thus adjust the difficulty level of piano lessons.
Developed by Beste Yuksel and Robert Jacob of Tufts University in Massachusetts, it estimates the brain’s workload using a wearable pad and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fnirs), which is a technique that measures oxygen levels in the brain.
The computer is then able to acquire an objective view into the learner’s cognitive state to avoid overloading them with information. Instead, it breaks down tasks into increasing levels of difficulty. Via Daily Mail
One of the major problems that this system solves is that of quitting – learners become frustrated because they are unable to keep up with the pace of traditional piano lessons.
…the system is able to adjust the learning task depending on their mental ability to guide the learner into the zone that the researchers call ‘proximal development’, or ZPD. ZPD explores the difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can do with help. Via Daily Mail
The brain-scanning system dubbed BACh (Brain Automated Chorales) has made life a lot easier for inexperience piano players. It was tested on 16 novice players who were given the task of learning two Bach chorales; one with the help of the BACh system and one without.
First, the learners only had to learn the soprano line. As their concentration levels decreased, this indicated that they had learned it sufficiently, so the BACh system added the bass part to build up the piece, which was later followed by the alto and tenor parts.
A learner’s cognitive workload typically starts at a high level when exposed to new material, and then steadily decrease with practice. When the workload falls below a certain threshold, it suggests that the learner has mastered the material and is now able to handle more cognitive information. The system is designed in such a way that it automatically increases the difficulty of the learning task.
The other chorale was presented without the program and the participants were instructed to learn the piece the way they normally would. The order of the two learning methods was alternated between participants.
Once they had used both learning methods, the participants were asked to play each piece once all the way through the best they could. Performance data from both conditions were recorded, including how many correct notes they made, how many incorrect notes they made, the number of extra notes, missed notes, and playing speed. Via Science Alert
Comparing the two groups, the researchers found that the learners played much better when playing with BACh. They recorded more correct notes, fewer incorrect notes, fewer missed notes and fewer errors.
“We found that learners played with significantly increased accuracy and speed in the brain-based adaptive task compared to our control condition,” the researchers from Tufts University report. “They could play with faster speed with Bach compared to a control where they learned the way they normally would.”
…”I find it exciting,” educational psychologist Ton de Jong from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, who wasn’t involved in the research, told New Scientist. “It’s individually based, and that’s one of the big things we are searching for: to make learning more adapted to the individual.”
…What’s cool is that the system isn’t restricted to just piano lessons – the principles can be applied to any kind of lesson, whether it’s learning a new language or understanding new maths formulae. We can’t wait to see what the researchers do with it next. Via Science Alert
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