Effects of Notation Type and Score Difficulty on Eye Movements During Erhu Sight-Reading

A parallel notational system comprising number notation and staff notation has long been employed in the pedagogy of traditional Chinese instrumental music. However, it remains unclear how these two representationally distinct notational systems shape performers’ visual-processing strategies. Therefore, using eye-tracking methods, the present study examined the interactive effects of notation type and score difficulty on visual–cognitive processing in a sight-reading task performed on the erhu, a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument. The results showed that increased difficulty generally led to greater fixation-related load and a contracted eye–hand span (EHS). Interaction analyses further indicated that numbered notation was associated with a more favorable eye-movement profile at intermediate difficulty, whereas this pattern was attenuated under difficult score conditions and accompanied by increased processing demands. In contrast, the eye-movement measures in staff notation appeared to be less sensitive to difficulty-related changes than those observed in numbered notation, a pattern that may reflect differences in the representational structures of the two notational systems. Collectively, these findings suggest that notational symbols may modulate sight-reading strategies among trained erhu students, providing preliminary evidence for music reading across different notational systems.