Benefits of Crank Moment Sonification in Cycling

In sports, the provision of augmented feedback is an important means to accelerate learning of new movements. Traditionally, concurrent augmented feedback has been provided verbally or visually. However, more recent studies have shown sonification of data during the movement, i.e. the mapping of a measured variable to parameter of sound, can be very effective to learn temporal aspects of a movement or movement patterns. In this pilot study, it was investigated if learning of complex pushing-pulling action applied to clipless pedals of a cycling ergometer can be enhanced by sonification of the crank moment. Three novice and three experienced cyclists were invited to train a reference crank moment pattern for two consecutive days (a total of twelve training sessions of 60 s each). However, in contrast to the results found in studies on rowing, the applied sonification did not enhance learning compared to visual and verbal instruction only. The lack of learning might be due to an inappropriate sonification design, short training sessions or the high task complexity. Extended studies are needed to draw more significant conclusions.