Emond, B., & Schoppek, W. (2026). Piano playing and the motor module. ACT-R Workshop.
Piano playing is a complex psychomotor multimodal skill. Key modelling issues include the persistent cognitive and motor load required for both acquiring and maintaining the skill, sight-reading and the eye–hand span, expressive and interpretive dimension of performance, and bidirectional anticipation and correction in motor control. The presentation will focus on the latter issue related to interfacing the act-r motor module with piano playing tasks. The presentation will show the limits for modelling piano playing using either: 1) the standard motor and manual buffer, and 2) the extended-motor, manual-left and manual-right buffers. We will propose to augment the extended-motor module for modelling some empirical results including figured bass improvisation, a Baroque-era musical skill requiring real-time harmonic realization from symbolic bass cues.
