Syncopated auditory polyrhythms: Discontinuous reversals in meter interpretation
James S. Oshinsky, Stephen Handel · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1978
Subjects tapped the beat (i.e., meter) of a polyrhythm in which one tone occurred three times per pattern repitition while the second tone occurred four times per pattern repitition. At one presentation rate, the polyrhythm underwent a figure-ground reversal —the beat shifted from one tone to the other. Rhythmic organization is thus a function of the absolute tempo.