Subject: Re: Rhythm From: Edward Large <large(at)CIS.OHIO-STATE.EDU> Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 10:14:39 -0500Dear List, > A quarter note beat could be divided into two eighth notes. > Theoretically, that would be a 50-50 division. > > It could be divided into a dotted quarter and a sixteenth. > That would be a 75-25 division, clearly different from 50-50. > > Can you distinguish between 75-25 and 67-33? How about 75-25 > vs 70-30? > > Presumably the answer depends somehow on the tempo. How? Many of the studies investigating such questions have used stimuli that are vastly simpler than real music (Repp's work is an exception to this). Caroline Palmer (among others) is doing nice work on the production of musical rhythm. I have been developing an approach to rhythm perception that attempts to explain both how people can perceive interval categories, and how acute discrimination their abilities are, in the case of very complex auditory patterns such as music. The idea is to model beat and meter perception as the attractor states of a temporally stable dynamical system (a network of nonlinear oscillators entrained to the rhythmic pattern); this has implications for many aspects of perception and attention. Take a look at: Large, E. W., & Kolen, J. F. (1994). Resonance and the perception of musical meter. Connection Science, 6 (1), 177 - 208. You should also read the work of Mari Jones, who has been investigating attention and time perception for several years now. Recently Mari and I have been been concerned with testing this internal oscillation theory of rhythm perception. Briefly, we have found that the ability to detect small changes in the timing of note onsets depends upon a number of factors including: 1. the overall tempo 2. the rhythmic patterning of the surrounding context 3. the variability of the periodicites that make up the rhythmic context 4. tempo modulation in the surrounding context (is the pattern speeding up or slowing down) 5. (probably -- this is still under investigation) whether the altered duration is longer or shorter than the standard duration The paper's still under review, but I'd be happy to send you a copy: Large, E. W., and Jones, M. R. (submitted). The dynamics of attending: How we track time varying events. Ed Edward W. Large Department of Psychology University of Pennsylvania 3401 Walnut Street, Suite 301C Philadelphia, PA 19104-6228 Voice: (215) 898-0343 A quick look for related refs in my database turned up: Repp, B. H. (1992). Probing the cognitive representation of musical time: Structural constraints on the perception of timing perturbations. Cognition, 44, 241-281. Jones, M.R. & Yee, W. (1997) Sensitivity to time change: The role of context and skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance. Drake, C., & Botte, M. (1993). Tempo sensitivity in auditory sequences: Evidence for a multiple-look model. Perception and Psychophysics, 54, 277-286. Allan, L.G. (1979). The perception of time. Perception & Psychophysics, 26 (5), 340-354. Boltz, M. (1992). The remembering of auditory event durations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition. 18, 938-956. Creelman, C. D. (1962). Human Discrimination of auditory duration. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 34, 582-593. Drake, C., & Palmer, C. (1993). Accent structures in music performance. Music Perception, 10, 343-378. Getty, D. J. (1975). Discrimination of short temporal intervals: A comparison of two models. Perception and Psychophysics, 18, 1-8. Getty, D. J. (1976) Counting processes in human timing. Perception & Psychophysics, 20, 191-197. Ivry, R. B., & Hazeltine, R. E. (1995). Perception and production of temporal intervals across a range of durations: Evidence for a common timing mechanism. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 21, 3-18. Jones, M. R. (1976). Time, our lost dimension: Toward a new theory of perception, attention, and memory. Psychological Review, 83, 323-335. Jones, M.R., & Boltz, M. (1989). Dynamic attending and responses to time. Psychological Review, 96, 459-491. Keele, S., Nicoletti, R. Ivry, R., & Pokorny, R. (1989). Mechanism96). On the nature oflze, H.H. (1989). The perception of temporal deviation in isochronic patterns. Perception & Psychophysics, 45, 291-296. Epstein, D. (1995). Shaping Time: Music, the Brain, and Performance. London: Schirmer Books.