Temporal stability of rhythmic tapping "on" and "off the beat": a developmental study

This study, following a dynamic pattern approach, examines age-related differences in the stability of unimanual rhythmic perception-action patterns. Thirty-six children, aged 7, 9, and 11 years, attempted to synchronize their finger tapping to the beats of an auditory metronome, either "on the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological research 2000-03, Vol.63 (1), p.62-69
Main Authors: Volman, M J, Geuze, R H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attention
Child
Female
Humans
Male
Motor Activity
Psychoacoustics
Reference Values
Time Perception
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This study, following a dynamic pattern approach, examines age-related differences in the stability of unimanual rhythmic perception-action patterns. Thirty-six children, aged 7, 9, and 11 years, attempted to synchronize their finger tapping to the beats of an auditory metronome, either "on the beat" (i.e., in-phase coordination), or "off the beat" (i.e., antiphase coordination). The temporal stability of these perception-action patterns was measured by the variability of the relative phase between taps and auditory events and by the critical frequency, that is, the frequency at which a loss of stability was observed when the metronome frequency was increased. Age-related differences in stability were found for both relative phase variability and critical frequency. These findings suggest that the relative phase dynamics underlying perception-action coordination patterns change with age in the direction of an increased temporal stability.
ISSN:0340-0727
1430-2772
DOI:10.1007/pl00008168