Temporal Control of Rhythmic Performance: A Comparison Between Young and Old Adults

Abstract

Young (20-30-year-old) and older (60-76-year-old) adults were tested on two measures of rhythmic performance. The first involved tapping at the subject's own preferred rate, a measure of so-called internal tempo. Over five sessions of testing, tapping rates were consistently and significantly slower on average in the older subjects than the younger ones, but rates were not relatively more variable in older subjects (i.e., coefficients of variation, standard deviation/mean, did not differ between the older and young people). In addition, both old and younger subjects performed on a synchronized-tapping and continuation task of the type used by Wing and Kristofferson (1973, Perception and Psychophysics, 14, 3-12). Target interresponse times were 300, 400, 500, 600, and 700 ms, and in all cases interresponse intervals produced by both the old and young adults matched the target times very closely. Wing and Kristofferson's analytical procedure was used to decompose tapping variance into that attributable to timing processes and that resulting from motor implementation of the timing signal. Both sorts of variance increased with increasing target interresponse time (with timer variance increasing most markedly), but no difference was found in either type of variance in comparisons between the old and younger subjects. If the internal tempo measure directly reflects the speed of internal timing processes, the data suggest that such processes are slower, but not relatively more variable, in older than younger subjects (consistent with some previous evidence and speculation), but that the calibration of performance forced by the synchronization task will make such an age-related difference in "internal clock speed" unobservable on synchronized-tapping tasks.

Spontaneous motor tempo and rhythmical synchronisation in 2½- and 4-year-old children

“…Even with a different methodological procedure, this rate is undoubtedly similar to those mentioned in literature (Fraisse, 1974;Jacquet et al, 1994). Our results support the hypothesis that internal tempo is located somewhere near 400 ms, which seems quicker than the adults' internal tempo (Fraisse, 1974;Vanneste et al, 2001). Therefore, our data confirm that the timekeeper slows down with age.…”

Age-related differences in time-based prospective memory: The role of time estimation in the clock monitoring strategy

“…This task, classically shown to be associated with internal clock speed and attentional resources, is sensitive to ageing, older adults producing more variable and shorter time intervals than young ones (Baudouin, Vanneste, Isingrini, & Pouthas, 2006;Block et al, 1998). The fundamental internal clock rate seems to slow down with age (Baudouin, Vanneste, & Isingrini, 2004;Vanneste, Pouthas, & Wearden, 2001), and modifications in time estimation are frequently demonstrated as a result of the memory and attentional resource deficits observed in ageing (Block et al, 1998;Craik & Hay, 1999;Perbal, Droit-Vollet, Isingrini, & Pouthas, 2002;Vanneste & Pouthas, 1999). Moreover, several recent timing experiments have shown the role of executive processes, such as updating and/or inhibition, in time perception (Brown, Collier & Night, 2013;Ogden, Salominaite, Jones, Fisk, & Montgomery, 2011).…”

Age-Related Declines in Visuospatial Working Memory Correlate With Deficits in Explicit Motor Sequence Learning

“…General age-related slowing may affect the pace of the central timing mechanism and thereby limit temporal resolution. In tasks that assess "central timing," older adults move more slowly and have larger temporal variability than that of young adults (e.g., Rakitin and Malapani 2008;Rakitin et al 2005;Vanneste et al 2001). Although producing a sequence is not necessarily rhythmic, it is a task that is mainly measured by reaction time.…”