PPP199: "I Played It Better At Home!" aka The Observer Effect

29Jun 2020 by Shelly Davis

I can’t tell you how many times I said those very words to my piano teachers! Even as an adult I would occasionally say, “Seriously, I played it better at home!”

The interesting phenomenon of having your actions affected when you know you are being watched is called the Observer Effect.

I first learned the name for this when I read Mike Rowe’s book, “The Way I Heard It.” I’m not affiliated with Mike Rowe or his book or his podcast but am a huge fan!

Listen to the full episode here

The Observer Effect, as explained through physics

I never thought I’d be talking about physics on this piano parent podcast, and the less I say about physics, the better, since I’ve never studied that topic!

I did come across this video that gave me a better understanding of the Observer Effect from their scientific point of view.

Take a look.

The Observer Effect for Students

This is definitely a thing.

When you are at home, you are more comfortable and relaxed. When you play for your teacher, either in their studio or on a Zoom lesson you are likely to be more tense and self-aware.

When you play at home, you are also potentially less aware of mistakes. Playing for your teacher makes you aware of mistakes and, as we will discuss in a bit, you pick up on cues from your teacher.

Since we know playing for someone else affects the way we play, we need to give ourselves the best opportunity to play well. That comes through familiarity and repetition.

I talk more about anxiety and performance butterflies in episode 076 and 140, respectively.

Communicate with your teacher. Be honest with them if you haven’t practiced (we know anyway), your honesty will help us give you more grace and understanding. If you’ve tried to work out a tricky spot in your music, it’s much easier for your teacher to help you than if you haven’t even tried the piece at all.

The Actor-observer Effect and Self-serving Bias for Parents

As mature adults, we need to help our children learn to empathize with others. Our unchecked reaction to situations tries to justify our own actions while projecting a character fault on another person.

When we succeed, we enjoy taking all the credit. When we fail, we like to blame others. We need to help our children learn to do the work so that we can more likely enjoy success. If they don’t have the success they worked for, we need to help them keep from internalizing the perceived failure as self-judgement.

The Golden Rule is so important for teaching our children to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”. It actually comes from scripture. Matthew 7:12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

This student-made video explains these two concepts very well.

The Power of Our Observations for Teachers

This final video demonstrates the power an observer can have over the thing being observed.

Clever Hans was a horse whose handler claimed he could calculate mathematical problems. As it turns out, Clever Hans wasn’t a clever mathematician, rather, he was clever at reading the body language of his trainer.

In a study with university students and lab rats, it was determined that the bias of the students determined the outcome of their experiment with “bright” rats and “dull” rats.

Clever Hans teaches us that we can influence our students with our unconscious cues.

We teach them to “read” us and our reactions to their music. We must teach them to “read” themselves and make their own decisions about their musicality and practice habits.

In the case of the Bright and Dull rats, our expectations can appear to cause the result. If we think our students are brilliant and capable, that will affect the way we teach them and they will respond to our teaching. Conversely, if we think our students do not put in time and effort with practicing, we are likely to expend less enthusiasm and motivation in our teaching and the cycle perpetuates itself.

The solution in the video is that the observer should have zero expectations. The university students wouldn’t be told they have bright rats or dull rats. This might work in a scientific setting but we teachers do have expectations for our students.

That being the case, my hope is that make us aware of our capacity for observer bias (presuming we are being watched) will help us have higher expectations for all our students.

Resources mentioned in today's show

Mike Rowe’s book “The Way I Heard It”

Mike Rowe’s podcast “The Way I Heard It”

Netflix show “100 Humans”

From the PPP Arvhives:

PPP076: Helping Your Child Deal with Anxiety

PPP140: Ten Things You Need to Know About Performance Butterflies

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