Does cognitive load differ among sight-singers? An exploratory study using pupillometry and interviews

Sight-singing is challenging for many music students, yet they can experience various difficulties with this task. To explore how cognitive load (CL) might differ among students, we combined two approaches: 1) a quantitative approach using pupil size diameter—a psychophysiological indicator of CL—to see whether CL differed as a function of sight-singing achievement and experience; 2) a qualitative approach to learn student's challenges when sight-singing and verify how such challenges reflect on sight-singing scores. We asked 56 post-secondary music students to complete a musical background questionnaire and to complete a sight-singing exercise, while an eye-tracker gathered data about their pupil size. After that, we interviewed them about the difficulties they experienced. The results revealed that CL did not vary between sight-singing performance and musical experience levels. However, we found a tendency suggesting that students with the highest intonation scores and lowest intonation scores both experienced a lower CL. On the contrary, CL was higher for students with average intonation scores. Interviews also revealed that many students experienced information overload while sight-singing, and students who shared such perception obtained, on average, lower sight-singing scores. Future studies should include qualitative data collection to deepen our understanding of learners' experiences