Abstract
Musical ensemble performance is a form of joint action that requires highly precise yet flexible interpersonal action coordination. To maintain synchrony during expressive passages that contain tempo variations, musicians presumably anticipate the sounds that will be produced by their co-performers. Our previous studies revealed that individuals differ in their ability to predict upcoming event timing when finger tapping in synchrony with tempo-changing pacing signals (i.e., the degree to which inter-tap intervals match vs. lag behind inter-onset intervals in the pacing signal varies between individuals). The current study examines the influence of these individual differences on synchronization performance in a dyadic tapping task. In addition, the stability of individual prediction tendencies across time is tested. Individuals with high or low prediction tendencies were invited to participate in two experimental sessions. In both sessions, participants were asked (1) to tap alone with a tempo-changing pacing signal and (2) to tap synchronously in dyads comprising individuals with similar or different prediction tendencies. Results indicated that individual differences in prediction tendencies were stable over several months and played a significant role in dyadic synchronization. Dyads composed of two high-predicting individuals tapped with higher accuracy and less variability than low-predicting dyads, while mixed dyads were intermediate. Prediction tendencies explained variance in dyadic synchronization performance over and above individual synchronization ability. These findings suggest that individual differences in temporal prediction ability may potentially mediate the interaction of cognitive, motor, and social processes underlying musical joint action.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
We assigned participants to one of the two groups in order to manipulate dyad composition experimentally (with respect to individual prediction abilities) and to test its effect on dyadic SMS performance. Note, however, that prediction tendencies exist on a continuum and are approximately normally distributed.
This deletion was necessary because ITIs of one participant were used as reference period to estimate the other participant’s tapping performance, and vice versa. Each missing tap of one participant results in an artifactually large ITI, which misleadingly suggests that the ‘non-missing’ tap of the second participant occurred in anti-phase.
Note that signed tap-to-tap asynchronies were used for the calculation of dyadic SMS variability, while dyadic SMS accuracy was based on absolute asynchronies. Absolute values were necessary for the latter, because otherwise vector directions of the two participants cancel each other out when averaged.
References
Berens P (2009) CircStat: A MATLAB toolbox for circular statistics. J Stat Softw 31:1–21
Blakemore SJ, Frith C (2005) The role of motor contagion in the prediction of action. Neuropsychologia 43:260–267
Clynes M, Walker J (1986) Music as time’s measure. Music Percept 4:85–119
Dixon S, Goebl W, Cambouropoulos E (2006) Perceptual smoothness of tempo in expressively performed music. Music Percept 23:195–214
Fisher NI (1993) Statistical analysis of circular data. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Goebl W, Palmer C (2009) Synchronization of timing and motion among performing musicians. Music Percept 26:427–438
Hove MJ, Risen JL (2009) It’s all in the timing: interpersonal synchrony increases affiliation. Soc Cognit 27:949–961
Jackson RC, Warren S, Abernethy B (2006) Anticipation skill and susceptibility to deceptive movement. Acta Psychol 123:355–371
Keller PE (2008) Joint action in music performance. In: Morganti F, Carassa A, Riva G (eds) Enacting intersubjectivity: a cognitive and social perspective to the study of interactions. IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp 205–221
Keller PE, Appel M (2010) Individual differences, auditory imagery, and the coordination of body movements and sounds in musical ensembles. Music Percept 28:27–46
Keller PE, Knoblich G, Repp BH (2007) Pianists duet better when they play with themselves: on the possible role of action simulation in synchronization. Conscious Cognit 16:102–111
Kirschner S, Tomasello M (2009) Joint drumming: social context facilitates synchronization in preschool children. J Exp Child Psychol 102:299–314
Kirschner S, Tomasello M (2010) Joint music making promotes prosocial behavior in 4-year-old children. Evol Hum Behav 31:354–364
Kleinspehn A (2008) Goal-directed interpersonal action synchronization across the lifespan. Dissertation, Free University of Berlin
Knoblich G, Jordan JS (2003) Action coordination in groups and individuals: learning anticipatory control. J Exp Psychol Learn 29:1006–1016
Konvalinka I, Vuust P, Roepstorff A, Frith CD (2010) Follow you, follow me: continuous mutual prediction and adaptation in joint tapping. Q J Exp Psychol 63:2220–2230
Lindenberger U, Li SC, Gruber W, Müller V (2009) Brains swinging in concert: cortical phase synchronization while playing guitar. BMC Neurosci 10:22
Madison G, Merker B (2005) Timing of action during and after synchronization with linearly changing intervals. Music Percept 22:441–459
Merker B, Madison G, Eckerdal P (2009) On the role and origin of isochrony in human rhythmic entrainment. Cortex 45:4–17
Michon JA (1967) Timing in temporal tracking. Van Gorcum, Assen
Nowicki DL (2009) Shared clocks: investigating interpersonal sensorimotor synchronization. Dissertation, University of Leipzig
Pecenka N, Keller PE (2009a) Auditory pitch imagery and its relationship to musical synchronization. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1169:282–286
Pecenka N, Keller PE (2009b) The relationship between auditory imagery and musical synchronization abilities in musicians. In: Louhivuori J, Eerola T, Saarikallio S, Himberg T, Eerola PS (eds) Proceedings of the 7th triennial conference of European society for the cognitive sciences of music. Jyväskylä, Finland, pp 409–414
Rankin SK, Large EW, Fink PW (2009) Fractal tempo fluctuation and pulse prediction. Music Percept 26:401–413
Rasch RA (1979) Synchronization in performed ensemble music. Acustica 43:121–131
Repp BH (1999) Control of expressive and metronomic timing in pianists. J Motor Behav 31:145–164
Repp BH (2001) Processes underlying adaptation to tempo changes in sensorimotor synchronization. Hum Mov Sci 20:277–312
Repp BH (2002) The embodiment of musical structure: effects of musical context on sensorimotor synchronization with complex timing patterns. In: Prinz W, Hommel B (eds) Common mechanisms in perception and action: attention and performance XIX. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 245–265
Repp BH (2005) Sensorimotor synchronization: a review of the tapping literature. Psychon B Rev 12:969–992
Repp BH (2006) Musical synchronization. In: Altenmueller E, Wiesendanger M, Kesselring J (eds) Music, motor control, and the brain. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 55–76
Rizzolatti G, Craighero L (2004) The mirror-neuron system. Annu Rev Neurosci 27:169–192
Schmidt RC, Christianson N, Carello C, Baron R (1994) Effects of social and physical variables on between-person visual coordination. Ecol Psychol 6:159–183
Sebanz N, Knoblich G (2009) Prediction in joint action: what, when, and where. Topics 1:353–367
Sebanz N, Shiffrar M (2009) Detecting deception in a bluffing body: the role of expertise. Psychon B Rev 16:170–175
Shaffer LH (1984) Timing in solo and duet piano performances. Q J Exp Psychol 36:577–595
Thaut M, Tian B, Sadjadi MA (1998) Rhythmic finger tapping to cosine-wave modulated metronome sequences: evidence of subliminal entrainment. Hum Mov Sci 17:839–863
Vesper C, Butterfill S, Knoblich G, Sebanz N (2010) A minimal architecture for joint action. Neural Netw 23:998–1003
Vuust P, Ostergaard L, Pallesen KJ, Bailey C, Roepstorff A (2009) Predictive coding of music—brain responses to rhythmic incongruity. Cortex 45:80–92
Wilson M, Knoblich G (2005) The case for motor involvement in perceiving conspecifics. Psychol Bull 131:460–473
Wiltermuth SS, Heath C (2009) Synchrony and cooperation. Psychol Sci 20:1–5
Wolpert DM, Doya K, Kawato M (2003) A unifying computational framework for motor control and social interaction. Philos T Roy Soc B 358:593–602
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pecenka, N., Keller, P.E. The role of temporal prediction abilities in interpersonal sensorimotor synchronization. Exp Brain Res 211, 505–515 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2616-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2616-0