Tapping to hip-hop: Effects of cognitive load, arousal, and musical meter on time experiences

Experiences of time vary intra- and interindividually, depending on factors such as attentional resource allocation and arousal. Music as a temporal art that is structured by multiple temporal layers is ideal for investigating human time experiences. The current study used examples of hip-hop music that varied in arousal but were constant in tempo. Participants judged the passage of time to be quicker when cognitive load was high in a dual-task condition, and perceived duration to be shorter when performing a concurrent motor task (tapping along with the music). Perceived musical arousal did not affect subjective time. Attending to a higher metrical level by tapping with half notes resulted in shorter duration estimates and a quicker passage of time, compared to tapping with eighth notes of the same music. Results were not influenced by spontaneous motor tempo, musical expertise, preference or familiarity with the music. Taken together, these findings indicate consistent effects of cognitive load and attention to meter on time experiences.

Sensorimotor Synchronization with Higher Metrical Levels in Music Shortens Perceived Time

The aim of the present study was to investigate if the perception of time is affected by actively attending to different metrical levels in musical rhythmic patterns. In an experiment with a repeated-measures design, musicians and nonmusicians were presented with musical rhythmic patterns played at three different tempi. They synchronized with multiple metrical levels (half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes) of these patterns using a finger-tapping paradigm and listened without tapping. After each trial, stimulus duration was judged using a verbal estimation paradigm. Results show that the metrical level participants synchronized with influenced perceived time: actively attending to a higher metrical level (half notes, longer intertap intervals) led to the shortest time estimations, hence time was experienced as passing more quickly. Listening without tapping led to the longest time estimations. The faster the tempo of the patterns, the longer the time estimation. While there were no differences between musicians and nonmusicians, those participants who tapped more consistently and accurately (as analyzed by circular statistics) estimated durations to be shorter. Thus, attending to different metrical levels in music, by deliberately directing attention and motor activity, affects time perception.

STRESS CLASH RESOLUTION IN ENGLISH AS L1 AND L2

This paper aims to analyze which strategy speakers of English as L1 and Brazilian speakers of English as L2 use to solve stress clash, a phenomenon in which two syllables bearing primary stress are adjacent in different words forming a phonological phrase such as [thirteen men]. The representation of stress clash, as well as the operation that allows its undoing, is one of the justifications whereby Liberman & Prince (1977) propose the metrical grid. The clash depends on information about the metrical level in which it occurs. The simple phonetic adjacency is not enough to characterize a clash. This paper is based on the work of Pike (1945), Selkirk (1984), Major (1985) to show distinctions between language types of rhythm (stress/syllable-timed ones) as well as a non-categorical polarization for rhythm in languages (Barbosa, 2000, 2002) and Silva Jr, (2013), Fragozo (2017) when comparing native and Brazilian speakers of English for the choice of stress clash solving strategies. For the Methods, we have done acoustic analysis of what we extracted and normalized the vowel duration values and applied to a statistical analysis using ANOVA test to check the degree of variance between Brazilians and native speakers of English. Our results show that native and Brazilian speakers of English use distinct strategies to solve stress clash: the former using stress retraction, which undoes primary stress clashes by moving the first stress of the clash to the left and the latter using silent demibeat addition, inserting a short pause in between the clash environment.

Algunas consideraciones sobre la métrica de la poesía infantil española contemporánea

La poesía infantil no ha sido muy estudiada en su nivel métrico. Este trabajo propone un primer acercamiento a la caracterización métrica y rítmica de la poesía escrita para niños en España en las últimas décadas. A partir del estudio de ciertos rasgos con respecto al uso de la rima, la medida de versos y los agrupamientos estróficos se llega a la conclusión de que este tipo de poesía presenta más complejidades de las esperadas a nivel métrico y explota en mucha mayor medida que la poesía adulta los procedimientos rítmicos y sonoros. Se pretende así sentar las bases para futuros estudios sistemáticos de la métrica de la poesía infantil.Children’s poetry has not been studied in the metrical level. This paper proposes a first approach to the characterization of metrics and rhythm of poetry written for children in Spain in the last decades. From the study of certain features regarding the use of rhyme, the measures of verses and the strophic groupings we come to the conclusion that this type of poetry shows more complexities than expected in the metrical level and takes advantage of rhythmic and sound procedures in much greater extent than adult poetry. The aim is to lay the foundation for future systematic studies of the metrics of children’s poetry.

"Trespasser mesure": Meter in Machaut's Polyphonic Songs

Comments by Jacques de Lige suggest that Ars nova notation operated metrically at more than one rhythmic level. This is borne out by Machaut's compositions, the lais in particular. Inconsistencies within and between the two complete editions of Machaut's works in the reductions of note-values used for transcription indicate that the matter has not been fully resolved; uncertainty concerning metrical level in the polyphonic songs is evident in the different barrings of modus-level rhythmic organization. The system of 12 "modes" (mensural types) in the Compendium de discantu mensurabili by Petrus frater dictus Palma Ociosa reveals that meters centering on both "modus" and "tempus" levels were equally part of polyphonic practice in the mid 1330s. Editors have been wary of recognizing the modus level in Machaut's polyphonic songs because of the frequent irregularities in metrical grouping at this level; yet variation in modus is acknowledged by the Ars nova treatises. A full re-evaluation of the presence of modus in Machaut's songs is warranted. Coordinated analysis of rhythmic "layers" (figural grouping, agogic accent, simultaneous attack, and syllabic rhythm) in two ballades (B35 and B25) justifies the irregular modus recognized by both editions and points to an important distinction between mensuration (pertaining to the notation) and meter (pertaining to the rhythmic organization). Figural disposition, varied recurrence of material, and syllabic rhythm provide other criteria for recognizing variable metrical form. A full-scale analysis on these terms reveals the extent and nature of Machaut's use of modus. His technique of metrical variation conforms to four types (phrasal "distension" and "contraction"; cadential "contraction" and "extension"), and ties in with a 14th-century aesthetic viewpoint that attached great significance to "variety." Machaut himself recognized it as a musical corollary of the amorous condition in lyric song ("trespasser mesure," Motet 7). Reassessment of the modus level has consequences for the editorial approach to notae finales, sectional rests, and also for the choice of tempo in performance.

On clashes and lapses

In phonology, one of the generalisations that seems to hold true across most, if not all, languages is that the overall rhythmic pattern tends to be organised such that there is an alternation of strong and weak syllables (cf. among others, Hayes 1980, 1984; Prince 1983; Selkirk 1984). In other words, languages tend to avoid strings of adjacent strong syllables, as well as strings of adjacent weak syllables. These generalisations are expressed by clauses (a) and (b), respectively, of Selkirk's Principle of Rhythmic Alternation (PRA):(1)Principle of Rhythmic Alternation(Selkirk 1984: 52)a. Every strong position on a metrical levelnshould be followed by at least one weak position on that levelb. Any weak position on a metrical levelnmay be preceded by at most one weak position on that levelOf course, the underlying rhythmic patterns of a language are not always in conformity with the PRA.