Lectures and presentations
The Influence of Music Experience on Polyrhythm Perception
All experts: Patti, Nijhuis; Joshua, S. Bamford; Dhwani, Sadaphal; Alessandro, Ansani
Activity details
Nature of event: Scientific conference
Name of event: ESCOM
Presentation type: Other public presentation
Start date: 03/07/2024
End date: 07/07/2024
Year: 2024
Description
Background
Polymetric structures, or polyrhythms, are a fundamental aspect of music found across genres that contribute to the experience of groove – the pleasurable urge to move in response to music – by adding interesting complexity to regular rhythms (Vuust et al., 2014). To experience groove, rhythms should maintain some level of predictability. Hence, simple polyrhythm ratios (like 2:3) are more common than complex ratios (like 4:5). Groove is inherently tied to the coordination of movement, as it is the (poly)rhythmic patterns that incite the body to sway, tap, or dance along. When moving to polyrhythms, they become visibly embodied. It is however unknown how this affects the perception of the polyrhythm, i.e., does visual embodiment shape polyrhythm perception?
Aims
The study aims to explore (1) constraints on the perception of (poly)rhythmic relationships in dyadic interactions (2) across sensory modalities and (3) levels of dance and music training.
Methods
Musicians, dancers, and non-dancers/non-musicians will view videos of human figures moving isochronously in coordination modes that vary in complexity (1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 2:3, 3:4, 4:5, irregular). All videos and audio are presented at the same speed (90 bpm for the slowest meter in the ratio), and 6 full cycles are displayed in three modalities: audio-visual, visual-only, and audio-only. The participants’ task is to recognize the coordination mode upon presentation in multiple choice format. Musical and dance training subscales of the Gold-MSI and Gold-DSI, respectively, are administered to measure musical and dance experience. Using a logistic mixed model, we calculate the odds ratio of the correct answer across modalities and complexity ratios.
Expected results
We expect to reproduce results from the auditory domain; more complex coordination modes are harder to identify and distinguish from each other. These effects are anticipated to be modulated by modality-specific training. Therefore, musicians should have an advantage in the auditory conditions and dancers in the visual conditions, whilst both benefit from multisensory integration.
Discussion and conclusion
This study is the first exploration of polyrhythm perception in the visual domain and sheds light on the modulation of their perception by modality-specific training. This study opens a new (sub)field of research and proposes a novel approach to visual perception and complex dyadic coordination.
Polymetric structures, or polyrhythms, are a fundamental aspect of music found across genres that contribute to the experience of groove – the pleasurable urge to move in response to music – by adding interesting complexity to regular rhythms (Vuust et al., 2014). To experience groove, rhythms should maintain some level of predictability. Hence, simple polyrhythm ratios (like 2:3) are more common than complex ratios (like 4:5). Groove is inherently tied to the coordination of movement, as it is the (poly)rhythmic patterns that incite the body to sway, tap, or dance along. When moving to polyrhythms, they become visibly embodied. It is however unknown how this affects the perception of the polyrhythm, i.e., does visual embodiment shape polyrhythm perception?
Aims
The study aims to explore (1) constraints on the perception of (poly)rhythmic relationships in dyadic interactions (2) across sensory modalities and (3) levels of dance and music training.
Methods
Musicians, dancers, and non-dancers/non-musicians will view videos of human figures moving isochronously in coordination modes that vary in complexity (1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 2:3, 3:4, 4:5, irregular). All videos and audio are presented at the same speed (90 bpm for the slowest meter in the ratio), and 6 full cycles are displayed in three modalities: audio-visual, visual-only, and audio-only. The participants’ task is to recognize the coordination mode upon presentation in multiple choice format. Musical and dance training subscales of the Gold-MSI and Gold-DSI, respectively, are administered to measure musical and dance experience. Using a logistic mixed model, we calculate the odds ratio of the correct answer across modalities and complexity ratios.
Expected results
We expect to reproduce results from the auditory domain; more complex coordination modes are harder to identify and distinguish from each other. These effects are anticipated to be modulated by modality-specific training. Therefore, musicians should have an advantage in the auditory conditions and dancers in the visual conditions, whilst both benefit from multisensory integration.
Discussion and conclusion
This study is the first exploration of polyrhythm perception in the visual domain and sheds light on the modulation of their perception by modality-specific training. This study opens a new (sub)field of research and proposes a novel approach to visual perception and complex dyadic coordination.
