Abstract
Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) impairs performance in speech, music, and tapping, with maximal impairment in speech occurring at a delay of about 200 msec. Thiscritical interval has played a central role in many explanations of the DAF effect, including both closed-loop feedback explanations and alternative proposals. We investigated the nature of the critical interval in rhythmic tapping—in particular, whether the critical interval has a constant value or is dependent on performance rate. Three experiments in which a synchronization-continuation paradigm was used consistently showed that the critical interval shifted with different tapping rates, with maximal impairment occurring when the delay approximately equaled the tapping rate. We address the implications of these results for theories of DAF.
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Portions of the research reported here were contained in the first author’s doctoral dissertation in cognitive science at Brown University, supervised by the second author. Experiment 3, as well as additional analyses and manuscript preparation, were completed during S.A.F.’s postdoctoral fellowship at Ohio State University.
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Finney, S.A., Warren, W.H. Delayed auditory feedback and rhythmic tapping: Evidence for a critical interval shift. Perception & Psychophysics 64, 896–908 (2002). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196794
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196794