U. S. researchers say memory capacity may also help in significant way to student musicians.

It has been reported that researchers Elizabeth Meinz of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and David Hambrick of Michigan State University in East Lansing find the amount of time a person spends practicing explains about 45 percent of the variance in sight-reading skill. However, they say working memory capacity is also important.

Published in Psychological Science, the study finds when the effect of practice is taken out, another 7 percent of variance in sight-reading skill is explained by working memory capacity.

Meinz said in a statement, "Practice is absolutely important to performance. But our study does suggest that cognitive abilities, particularly working memory capacity, might limit the ultimate level of performance that could be attained."

It has further been reported that Meinz, Hambrick and colleagues asked pianists to sight read six "tests" rarely used in the United States. Each pianist was graded based on technical proficiency, musicality and performance level. The pianists, asked to give a history that included hours of practice time, were also tested on working memory capacity. (With Inputs from Agencies)