Evolving building blocks of rhythm: How human cognition creates music via cultural transmission

Ravignani, Andrea; Thompson, Bill; Grossi, Thomas; Delgado, Tania; Kirby, Simon

doi:10.1101/198390

Cited by 11 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…When humans reproduce an initially randomly-timed rhythmic sequence, and this process is repeated in a cascade fashion within one or across several individuals, the sequence is subconsciously reshaped to be composed of IOIs related by small integer ratios (Figure 1A ; c.f. Polak et al, 2016 ; Ravignani et al, 2016 , 2018 ; Jacoby and McDermott, 2017 ).…”

Section: Integer Ratios and Musical Rhythmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Do Durations in Musical Rhythms Conform to Small Integer Ratios?

Ravignani

Thompson

Lumaca

et al. 2018

Front. Comput. Neurosci.

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One curious aspect of human timing is the organization of rhythmic patterns in small integer ratios. Behavioral and neural research has shown that adjacent time intervals in rhythms tend to be perceived and reproduced as approximate fractions of small numbers (e.g., 3/2). Recent work on iterated learning and reproduction further supports this: given a randomly timed drum pattern to reproduce, participants subconsciously transform it toward small integer ratios. The mechanisms accounting for this “attractor” phenomenon are little understood, but might be explained by combining two theoretical frameworks from psychophysics. The scalar expectancy theory describes time interval perception and reproduction in terms of Weber's law: just detectable durational differences equal a constant fraction of the reference duration. The notion of categorical perception emphasizes the tendency to perceive time intervals in categories, i.e., “short” vs. “long.” In this piece, we put forward the hypothesis that the integer-ratio bias in rhythm perception and production might arise from the interaction of the scalar property of timing with the categorical perception of time intervals, and that neurally it can plausibly be related to oscillatory activity. We support our integrative approach with mathematical derivations to formalize assumptions and provide testable predictions. We present equations to calculate durational ratios by: (i) parameterizing the relationship between durational categories, (ii) assuming a scalar timing constant, and (iii) specifying one (of K) category of ratios. Our derivations provide the basis for future computational, behavioral, and neurophysiological work to test our model.

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Section: Integer Ratios and Musical Rhythmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Do Durations in Musical Rhythms Conform to Small Integer Ratios?

Ravignani

Thompson

Lumaca

et al. 2018

Front. Comput. Neurosci.

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“…Moreover, there are already some experimental results suggesting that single participants simply do not follow the same trajectories as traditions with multiple individuals. For instance, Claidière et al [47] have found, in a transmission chain with baboons, a higher performance and transmission fidelity in traditions with multiple participants than in individuals presented with their own earlier outputs (but see [78]).…”

Section: (I) What Sorts Of Evolutionary Dynamics Characterize Cumulatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cumulative culture in the laboratory: methodological and theoretical challenges

Miton¹,

Charbonneau²

2018

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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In the last decade, cultural transmission experiments (transmission chains, replacement, closed groups and seeded groups) have become important experimental tools in investigating cultural evolution. However, these methods face important challenges, especially regarding the operationalization of theoretical claims. In this review, we focus on the study of cumulative cultural evolution, the process by which traditions are gradually modified and, for technological traditions in particular, improved upon over time. We identify several mismatches between theoretical definitions of cumulative culture and their implementation in cultural transmission experiments. We argue that observed performance increase can be the result of participants learning faster in a group context rather than effectively leading to a cumulative effect. We also show that in laboratory experiments, participants are asked to complete quite simple tasks, which can undermine the evidential value of the diagnostic criterion traditionally used for cumulative culture (i.e. that cumulative culture is a process that produces solutions that no single individual could have invented on their own). We show that the use of unidimensional metrics of cumulativeness drastically curtail the variation that may be observed, which raises specific issues in the interpretation of the experimental evidence. We suggest several solutions to these mismatches (learning times, task complexity and variation) and develop the use of design spaces in experimentally investigating old and new questions about cumulative culture.

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“…Studying the biology-culture interface can be used to reconcile old, unproductive nature-nurture debates by potentially showing how cognitive biases and cultural transmission interact to deliver the rhythmic structure of speech. Work along these lines has been done for linguistic morphology 165 , poetry 166 , and musical rhythm 90,[167][168][169] . An experimental design similar to these studies could be used to show how domain-general biases are amplified by cultural transmission resulting in rhythmic patterns of speech.…”

Section: General Discussion and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of speech rhythm: a cross-species perspective

Ravignani

Bella

Falk

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Cognition and communication, at the core of human speech rhythm, do not leave a fossil record. However, if the purpose is to understand the origin and evolution of speech rhythm, alternative methods are available. A powerful tool is comparative approach: studying the presence or absence of cognitive/behavioral traits in other species, drawing conclusions on which traits are shared between species, and which are recent human inventions. Here we apply this approach to traits related to human speech rhythm. Many species exhibit temporal structure in their vocalizations but little is known about the range of rhythmic structures perceived and produced, their biological and developmental bases, and communicative functions. We review the literatures on human and non-human studies of rhythm in speech and animal vocalizations to survey similarities and differences. We report important links between vocal perception and motor coordination, and the differentiation of rhythm based on hierarchical temporal structure. We extend this review to quantitative techniques useful for computing rhythmic structure in acoustic sequences and hence facilitating cross-species research. While still far from a full comparative cross-species perspective of speech rhythm, we are closer to fitting missing pieces of the puzzle.

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Evolving building blocks of rhythm: How human cognition creates music via cultural transmission

Cited by 11 publications

References 28 publications

Why Do Durations in Musical Rhythms Conform to Small Integer Ratios?

Why Do Durations in Musical Rhythms Conform to Small Integer Ratios?

Cumulative culture in the laboratory: methodological and theoretical challenges

Evolution of speech rhythm: a cross-species perspective

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