Sensitivity to event timing in regular and irregular sequences: Influences of musical skill

In two experiments, the performance of listeners with different amounts of musical training (high skill, low skill) was examined in a two-alternative forced choice time-detection task involving simple five-cycle acoustic sequences. In each of a series of trials, all listeners determined which of two pattern cycles contained a small time change. Sequence context was also varied (regular vs. irregular timing). In Experiment 1, in which context was manipulated as a between-subjects variable, high-skill listeners performed significantly better than low-skill listeners only with regular patterns. In Experiment 2, in which context was manipulated as a within-subjects variable, the only significant source of variance was pattern context: All listeners were better at detecting time changes in regular than in irregular patterns. The results are considered in light of several hypotheses, including the expectancy/contrast model (Jones & Boltz, 1989).

[1]  M R Jones,et al.  Expected endings and judged duration , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[2]  L. Allan.  The perception of time , 1979 .

[3]  Peter Essens,et al.  Perception of Temporal Patterns , 1985 .

[4]  John W. Tukey,et al.  Exploratory Data Analysis. , 1979 .

[5]  J J Bharucha,et al.  Disrupting the isochrony underlying rhythm: An asymmetry in discrimination , 1986, Perception & psychophysics.

[6]  L. V. Noorden.  Temporal coherence in the perception of tone sequences , 1975 .

[7]  S. Handel.  The differentiation of rhythmic structure , 1992, Perception & psychophysics.

[8]  C. Douglas Creelman,et al.  Human Discrimination of Auditory Duration , 1962 .

[9]  C. Krumhansl,et al.  Mental representations for musical meter. , 1990, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[10]  S. Abel.  Discrimination of Temporal Gaps , 1971 .

[11]  M. R. Jones,et al.  Some effects of rhythmic context on melody recognition. , 1984, The American journal of psychology.

[12]  P J Essens,et al.  Hierarchical organization of temporal patterns , 1986, Perception & psychophysics.

[13]  A. Kristofferson,et al.  Judgments about the duration of brief stimuli , 1974 .

[14]  P. Essens,et al.  Metrical and nonmetrical representations of temporal patterns , 1985, Perception & psychophysics.

[15]  J. Sloboda.  The Communication of Musical Metre in Piano Performance , 1983 .

[16]  M. R. Jones,et al.  Time, our lost dimension: toward a new theory of perception, attention, and memory. , 1976, Psychological review.

[17]  R J Jagacinski,et al.  Tests of attentional flexibility in listening to polyrhythmic patterns. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[18]  A. Small,et al.  Temporal differential sensitivity for auditory stimuli. , 1962, American Journal of Psychology.

[19]  M. R. Jones,et al.  Evidence for rhythmic attention. , 1981, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[20]  David J. Getty,et al.  Discrimination of short temporal intervals: A comparison of two models , 1975 .

[21]  C J Darwin,et al.  Duration discrimination in a series of rhythmic events , 1982, Perception & psychophysics.

[22]  I J Hirsh,et al.  Studies in auditory timing: 1. Simple patterns , 1990, Perception & psychophysics.

[23]  M. Jones,et al.  Attending to auditory events: The role of temporal organization. , 1993 .

[24]  Mari Riess Jones,et al.  The MIDILAB music research system. , 1989 .

[25]  Ewart A. C. Thomas,et al.  Time perception and the filled-duration illusion , 1974 .

[26]  M. R. Jones,et al.  Dynamic attending and responses to time. , 1989, Psychological review.

[27]  Alfred B. Kristofferson.  A real-time criterion theory of duration discrimination , 1977 .

[28]  J. Mullennix,et al.  Some effects of talker variability on spoken word recognition. , 1989, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[29]  I J Hirsh,et al.  Studies in auditory timing: 2. Rhythm patterns , 1990, Perception & psychophysics.

[30]  Alfred B. Kristofferson,et al.  Low-variance stimulus-response latencies: Deterministic internal delays? , 1976 .