Subdivision of the beat: Estimation and production of time ratio by skilled musicians
Ronald L. Knoll, Saul Sternberg, Paul Zukofsky · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1976
Professional musicians served as subjects in experiments on time estimation and production. In one procedure, equally spaced high-frequency clicks defined rhythmic beats. Intervening lower-frequency marker clicks indicated a fraction of the interval between beats. Subjects estimated the fraction. In a second procedure, equally spaced clicks were presented without the intervening marker clicks. Subjects attempted to produce a specified fraction of the interval between beats by responding with a finger tap after each click. If produced fractions are adjusted by estimating the time between click occurrence and response feedback, then any biases in the two tasks should be equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. For large fractions, estimated and produced fractions were unbiased. However, for small fractions, both estimated and produced fractions were too large. With respect to a feedback theory of production, the common direction of the two biases is paradoxical. [Work partially supported by IRCAM and Rockefeller Foundation.]