Learning Movement Kinematics with a Targeted Sound

This study introduces an experiment designed to analyze the sensorimotor adaptation to a motion-based sound synthesis system. We investigated a sound-oriented learning task, namely to reproduce a targeted sound. The motion of a small handheld object was used to control a sound synthesizer. The object angular velocity was measured by a gyroscope and transmitted in real time wirelessly to the sound system. The targeted sound was reached when the motion matched a given reference angular velocity profile with a given accuracy. An incorrect velocity profile produced either a noisier sound or a sound with a louder high harmonic, depending on the sign of the velocity error. The results showed that the participants were generally able to learn to reproduce sounds very close to the targeted sound. A corresponding motor adaptation was also found to occur, at various degrees, in most of the participants when the profile is altered.