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In this study the imitation of several periodically repeating simple temporal patterns consisting of two or more intervals varying in their duration ratios has been investigated. The errors that subjects typically made in their imitations and the systematic changes that occurred during repeated imitations indicate that both musically trained and untrained subjects map temporal sequences onto an interval structure the nature of which is revealed by studying which patterns are correctly and which incorrectly reproduced. A "beat-based" model for the perception of temporal sequences is proposed. This model states that the first step in the processing of a temporal sequence consists of a segmentation of the sequence into equal intervals bordered by events. This interval is called the beat interval. How listeners select this beat interval is only partly understood. In a second step, intervals smaller than the beat interval are expressed as a subdivision of the beat interval in which they occur. The number of within-beat structures that can be represented in the model is, however, limited. Specifically, only beat intervals that are subdivided into either equal intervals or intervals in a 1:2 ratio fit within the model. The partially hierarchical model proposed, though in need of further elaborations, shows why the number of temporal patterns that can be correctly conceptualized is limited. The relation of the model to other models is discussed.
Equitone sequences are defined as sequences of tones that are identical in all respects: frequency, spectral composition, intensity, and duration. The only parameter varied in these sequences is the time-interval between tones. In such sequences, clear accents are perceived. This paper describes accent perception in equitone sequences containing two alternating intervals; such sequences are perceived as consisting of repeating groups of two tones. An accent is heard on the first tone of a group if the difference between the intervals is about 5% to 10%. If the difference is made bigger, the accent is heard on the last tone of the group; this latter accent is considerably stronger than the accent previously heard on the first tone. In a number of experiments, the conditions under which the two types of accents occur were investigated. From these experiments, it was tentatively concluded that the accent on the last tone is heard because that tone, since it is followed by a longer interval, can be processed more completely. This "intervalproduced" accent indeed occurs only if the between-group interval is considerably longer than the within-group interval and if the latter does not exceed a duration of about 250 msec. The effect is slightly dependent on tone duration. The interval-produced accent can be balanced if the nonaccented tone is increased by about 4 dB in intensity. This shows that the effect is quite robust. The specific type of accentuation reported here might explain some rhythmical phenomena, examples of which are given.
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