Whether you’re in a meeting, a class, or trying to practice, it’s pretty normal for your attention to wander, and to have difficulty focusing on the task at hand at times.
But for those with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), controlling attention and staying on task can be a more frustrating and pervasive challenge. A challenge that can interfere with learning in the practice room as well the classroom.
So what are the implications for optimizing practice? Should practice sessions be longer? Or shorter?
And do these implications apply only to folks with an ADHD diagnosis, or to all practicers in general?
If it sounds like we’re about to dive into research on ADHD, you’re totally right! But stick with me as I think you’ll find that it’s worthwhile (and relevant) whether you have ADHD or not. 😁
Repetition, repetition, repetition?
At first glance, getting more practice repetitions sounds like a good thing, right? And generally speaking, sure, when done right, more repetitions can lead to improved learning of a skill (as in this article on overlearning).
But this is actually a really nuanced aspect of effective learning (as explained here and here). And there can be such a thing as too many repetitions. Because at some point, we begin to get fatigued (mentally and/or physically), which can lead to a drop in the effectiveness of our practice sessions.
And it seems that long, repetitive practice sessions might be especially unproductive for folks with ADHD. Largely, because the impulse control issues associated with ADHD can make it difficult to stay vigilant about the effectiveness of one’s practice. Which can lead to mindless repetition, making for a low-quality practice session and a lot of incorrect repetitions, which only reinforces errors and bad habits (ala this article).
An ADHD study on motor learning!
To explore this further, a team of researchers (Fox et al., 2016) recruited 32 female college students to participate in a simple motor learning study.
16 of the participants had been formally diagnosed with ADHD, but were not medicated. The other half of the participants had never been diagnosed or thought to have ADHD.
Tappy fingers
All 32 participants went through the same testing and training process.
Specifically, they were taught a finger-tapping sequence – kind of like practicing the fingering of a passage on the table or in the air – and then they got 3 warm-up repetitions, followed by a test to establish a baseline level of performance.
The task sounds pretty simple, but the test was a little more challenging. Because while the task of tapping one’s fingers in a particular sequence might not be that difficult, the test involved tapping out the sequence “as rapidly and accurately as possible” for 30 seconds.
The more finger taps in 30 seconds, the greater their speed score. The more mistakes they made, the lower their accuracy score.
A practice session and tests
After the initial baseline test, participants were given 80 practice repetitions to learn the sequence.
This practice session was followed immediately by another test to see how much they improved as a result of practicing. And to see how well their practice gains would “stick,” they were tested again 24-hours later and 2 weeks after the training session.
A longer practice session and tests
In addition to this study of an 80-repetition practice session, the researchers also conducted an identical study in which the practice session was twice as long (i.e. 160 practice repetitions instead of 80).
They were curious to see if there would be any differences in test performance between these two groups.
As in, would more practice lead to better performance? Or worse performance? And would the results be the same for both ADHD and non-ADHD participants?
80 practice repetitions
Well, let’s take a look at the 80-rep study first.
Speed
When it came to the speed of performance (i.e. how many times could participants perform the correct fingering sequence in a 30-second span of time), both the ADHD and non-ADHD groups improved over the course of practice, and retained this improvement when tested 24 hours after their practice session.
Accuracy
And when it came to accuracy (i.e. how many fingering mistakes did participants make as they increased speed?), both the ADHD and non-ADHD groups improved over the course of practice, and retained their improved accuracy at the 24-hour test as well.
So…what happened in the study where participants practiced twice as much?
160 practice repetitions
Speed
When it came to speed, both the ADHD and non-ADHD participants improved over the course of 160 practice repetitions. And how much of an extra boost to performance did participants gain from the additional practice repetitions?
Well, pretty much none.
Both the ADHD and non-ADHD participants’ speed gains were about the same, whether they did 80 repetitions or 160.
Accuracy
And when it came to accuracy, the shorter 80-rep practice session was actually better than the longer 160-rep practice session.
Because as they began increasing the speed of their performance, the ADHD participants who did 160 practice reps actually made more fingering mistakes and were less accurate on both the test that followed practice, and the test 24 hours later.
Whereas the ADHD participants who did only 80 practice reps made fewer fingering mistakes, and were more accurate when tested after practice and on the following day – just like their non-ADHD peers.
Overall, they did make slightly more errors than the non-ADHD participants, but the shorter session resulted in an equivalently speedy performance and greater accuracy the following day, unlike their counterparts whose practice session was twice as long.
So what do we do with this information? Does this mean we can all cut our practice by half…?
Take action
Ha, I hate to disappoint, but that’s probably not the answer. 😅
Ultimately, I don’t think it’s about counting repetitions or recommending half as many repetitions for students with ADHD as those without. And I don’t think that the study is suggesting that folks with ADHD only need to practice half as much (or that they can’t practice more) either.
I think that all of this is essentially about the importance of knowing when to take a break. And paying attention to your engagement and focus, pausing on occasion (as described in this article) to see if you may have reached that point in a practice session where you are no longer practicing productively.
Because whether you’ve been diagnosed with ADHD or not, continuing to practice beyond the point where you can really monitor each repetition in a thoughtful and analytical way, reflect, and aim for better the next time, could very well do more harm than good.
Which is not an excuse to call it quits for the day, of course! Just for the moment. 😁
References
Fox, O., Karni, A., & Adi-Japha, E. (2016). The consolidation of a motor skill in young adults with ADHD: Shorter practice can be better. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 51–52, 135–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2016.01.014
You are great! Thanks for worring for us musicians, and adhd’s!
Great post. Being able to recognize when repetitions are no longer beneficial is very important. It seems like one way to minimize the decreased efficiency is to space out practice, and not to repeat one section of music too many times.
Shorter practice may not be the answer, but wiser practice. I’ve always found that practicing a lot of sections a little bit every day is much more beneficial than over practicing a few sections.
[…] I think all musicians grasp that practice is necessary, but a lot still not seem to know why. Obviously we all need to broaden our technical skills. But is that all practice is? Repeated scales until you’ve beaten a skill into muscle memory? According to Noa Kageyama, PhD (https://bulletproofmusician.com/why-practicing-more-can-lead-to-worse-performance/) […]
Interesting, this article seems to tie in well with avoiding habitualization that Carter addressed with random practice schedules. Thanks for the write up.