Watching or Listening: How Visual and Verbal Information Contribute to Learning a Complex Dance Phrase

Abstract

While learning from observation is generally regarded as major learning mode for motor actions, evidence from dance practice suggests that learning dance movement through verbal instruction might provide a promising way to support dancers' individual interpretation of and identification with the movement material. In this multidisciplinary project, we conducted a study on the learning of dance movement through two modalities, observation of a human model in a video clip and listening to the audio-recording of a verbal movement instruction. Eighteen second year dance students learned two dance phrases, one from observation and one from verbal instruction, and were video-recorded performing the learned material. In a second learning step, they were presented the complementary information from the other modality, and their performance was recorded again. A third recording was carried out in a retention test 10 days after learning. Completeness scores representing the recall of the dance phrases, expert ratings addressing the performance quality and questionnaires reflecting the participants' personal impressions were used to evaluate and compare the performance at different stages of the learning process. Results show that learning from observation resulted in better learning outcomes in terms of both recall and approximation of the model phrase, whereas individual interpretation of the learned movement material was rated equally good after initially verbal and initially visual learning. According to the questionnaires, most participants preferred learning initially from observation and found it more familiar, which points toward an influence of learning habit caused by common training practice. The findings suggest that learning dance movement initially from observation is more beneficial than from verbal instruction, and add aspects with regards to multimodal movement learning with potential relevance for dance teaching and training.

Individual Differences in Sequential Movement Coordination in Hip-Hop Dance: Capturing Joint Articulation in Practicing the Wave

“…Thus, verbalizing a task with added visual demonstration offers constraints that shape the learner's understanding of task goals. In dance education, the opposite finding appears salient; learning dance movement initially from observation is more beneficial than verbal instruction (Gray and Skrinar, 1984;Bläsing et al, 2018). Whiting and Brinker (1982) put forward the idea that learners utilize information that facilitates movement imagery of the task (Whiting, 1988) and the potential focusing on the successful movement to be achieved.…”

Beyond action observation: Neurobehavioral mechanisms of memory for visually perceived bodies and actions

“…Along the same lines, dancers' memory span is longer for both structured and unstructured dance movements (Starkes et al, 1987), and this advantage unfolds beyond their specific sensorimotor expertise; i.e., expert dancers seem to possess better encoding and lasting representations of dance and non-dance movements (Smyth and Pendleton, 1994). This general superiority seems underpinned by a range of different encoding strategies such as the use of cues, the encoding of events as more or less meaningful, the verbalization of what is observed, or the use of imagery and synchronization (see compendium of encoding strategies in Starkes et al, 1990;Ille and Cadopi, 1999;Poon and Rodgers, 2000;Bläsing et al, 2012Bläsing et al, , 2018Stevens, 2017;Stevens et al, 2019).…”

Learning new sport actions: Pilot study to investigate the imitative and the verbal instructive teaching methods in motor education

“…A number of studies examined instructions and feedback for motor skill learning and their influence on motor performance. In a recent study [27] authors aimed at disentangling visual and verbal instruction modalities in dance movements. They found a performance superiority of visual observation in learning of complex movement sequences in dance.…”

“…For example, it is not known whether, in the initial learning of a new action, a verbal explanation of the movements to be performed could be more effective than a model observation [ 32 ]. From the developmental perspective several studies have shown that the development of motor control is tied to the ability to integrate visual and proprioceptive afferences between 5 to 10 years of age, during the execution of overt movement [ 25 – 27 ]. Children less than 8–9 years of age [ 28 ] predominantly use visual feedback to correct their movement.…”