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Evidence for tempo-specific timing in music using a web-based experimental setup.

Henkjan Honing1

  • 1Music Cognition Group, ILLC/Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands. honing@uva.nl

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance
|July 11, 2006
PubMed
Summary

Listeners can distinguish original music performances from tempo-transformed ones, suggesting expressive timing is tempo-specific. This challenges the idea that timing perception remains invariant across tempo changes in music.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Music Perception
  • Auditory Neuroscience

Background:

  • Perceptual invariance is a known cognitive phenomenon observed in speech, motor behavior, and object motion.
  • Previous research on perceptual invariance in music perception, specifically expressive timing, yielded inconclusive results.
  • The invariance of expressive timing under tempo transformation in music performance remains an open question.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the perceptual invariance of expressive timing in music performance when tempo is altered.
  • To test the tempo-specific timing hypothesis against the relationally invariant timing hypothesis.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a novel online experimental setup with high-quality audio.
  • Employed state-of-the-art tempo-transformation techniques on music performances.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Asked listeners to compare original and tempo-transformed recordings to identify the original.

    • Main Results:

    • Listeners were able to reliably detect the original music performance when comparing it to a tempo-transformed version.
    • This indicates that tempo transformation alters the perceived naturalness of expressive timing.
    • The findings support the tempo-specific timing hypothesis.

    Conclusions:

    • Expressive timing in music performance is not relationally invariant under tempo transformation.
    • Tempo-transformed performances sound less natural, supporting the tempo-specific timing hypothesis.
    • The study provides strong evidence against the concept of relationally invariant timing in this context.