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Dynamic allocation of attention to metrical and grouping accents in rhythmic sequences

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Abstract

Most people find it easy to perform rhythmic movements in synchrony with music, which reflects their ability to perceive the temporal periodicity and to allocate attention in time accordingly. Musicians and non-musicians were tested in a click localization paradigm in order to investigate how grouping and metrical accents in metrical rhythms influence attention allocation, and to reveal the effect of musical expertise on such processing. We performed two experiments in which the participants were required to listen to isochronous metrical rhythms containing superimposed clicks and then to localize the click on graphical and ruler-like representations with and without grouping structure information, respectively. Both experiments revealed metrical and grouping influences on click localization. Musical expertise improved the precision of click localization, especially when the click coincided with a metrically strong beat. Critically, although all participants located the click accurately at the beginning of an intensity group, only musicians located it precisely when it coincided with a strong beat at the end of the group. Removal of the visual cue of grouping structures enhanced these effects in musicians and reduced them in non-musicians. These results indicate that musical expertise not only enhances attention to metrical accents but also heightens sensitivity to perceptual grouping.

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Notes

  1. The weighted guessing probability is calculated by considering the uneven distribution of the click position within the rhythmic sequence. Specifically, the click coincided with the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th tones in 80% of the trials, while it appeared in the other 22 positions (i.e., from the 1st to the 6th tone, from the 12th to the 16th tone, and the midpoints between any two tones in these ranges) in 20% of the trials. Therefore, the chance level of guessing a correct response when taking such distribution probability into account would be 11.9% (i.e., 1/(5 × 80% + 22 × 20%) = 11.9%).

  2. In Experiment 1, the accuracy of all conditions was significantly higher than the chance level of 3.1% in both musicians and non-musicians. When considering the awareness of the uneven distribution of the click position, all conditions were significantly above the guessing probability of 11.9% in musicians (ts(19) > 2.58, Ps < .018), except when the click coinciding with a weak beat was located in the middle of a group (t(19) = 2.01, P = .059). For non-musicians, however, among the total six conditions where four of them were accented, three accented conditions were significantly above the weighted guessing probability: SB condition (i.e., the click coinciding with a strong beat was localized in the beginning of the 3-tone group; t(19) = 4.33, P < .001), SE condition (t(19) = 2.82, P = .011), and WB condition (t(19) = 4.14, P = .001).

  3. In Experiment 2, the accuracy of all conditions surpassed the chance level of 3.1% in both musicians and non-musicians. In musicians, the accuracy of all conditions was also above the weighted guessing probability (ts(19) > 3.05, Ps < .008). In non-musicians, however, only the conditions including grouping accents showed the tendency to reach the significant difference from the chance level of 11.9% (SB condition, t(19) = 2.07, P = .052; WB condition: t(19) = 2.37, P = .029).

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Bruno Repp for his helpful discussions and comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. We are also grateful to Dr. Mari Riess Jones and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments. This study was supported by grants from Academia Sinica (AS-99-TP-AC1) and National Science Council (NSC 98-2517-S-004-001-MY3 & NSC 99-2410-H-008-023-MY3) in Taiwan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Neuroscience, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shu-Jen Kung, Ovid J. L. Tzeng & Daisy L. Hung

  2. Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ovid J. L. Tzeng

  3. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, National Central University, No, 300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli City, Taoyuan County, 32001, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

    Daisy L. Hung & Denise H. Wu

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  1. Shu-Jen Kung
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Correspondence to Denise H. Wu.

Appendix

Appendix

All rhythmic materials used in the present study. The angle bracket (>) indicates the metrically strong beat. Long and short bars represent loud and soft tones, respectively.

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Kung, SJ., Tzeng, O.J.L., Hung, D.L. et al. Dynamic allocation of attention to metrical and grouping accents in rhythmic sequences. Exp Brain Res 210, 269–282 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2630-2

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