The Tapping-PROMS: A test for the assessment of sensorimotor rhythmic abilities

Abstract

Sensorimotor synchronization is a longstanding paradigm in the analysis of isochronous beat tapping. Assessing the finger tapping of complex rhythmic patterns is far less explored and considerably more complex to analyze. Hence, whereas several instruments to assess tempo or beat tapping ability exist, there is at present a shortage of paradigms and tools for the assessment of the ability to tap to complex rhythmic patterns. To redress this limitation, we developed a standardized rhythm tapping test comprising test items of different complexity. The items were taken from the rhythm and tempo subtests of the Profile of Music Perception Skills (PROMS), and administered as tapping items to 40 participants (20 women). Overall, results showed satisfactory psychometric properties for internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity correlations fell in line with expectations. Specifically, performance in rhythm tapping was correlated more strongly with performance in rhythm perception than in tempo perception, whereas performance in tempo tapping was more strongly correlated with performance in tempo than rhythm perception. Both tapping tasks were only marginally correlated with non-temporal perception tasks. In combination, the tapping tasks explained variance in external indicators of musical proficiency above and beyond the perceptual PROMS tasks. This tool allows for the assessment of complex rhythmic tapping skills in about 15 min, thus providing a useful addition to existing music aptitude batteries.

Understanding functional brain reorganization for naturalistic piano playing in novice pianists

“…Behavioral data acquired during scanning encompassed the timing of key presses and releases for every key of the instrument. To investigate whether the participants' learning resulted in improved performance, we scored the performances using a comparison to errorless performance by Levenshtein ratio and the relative rhythmic deviance, based on the tapping-PROMS paradigm (Georgi et al, 2023). The Levenshtein ratio is a method to compare sequences (Levenshtein et al, 1966 which relates the number of differences between sequences to their length.…”

Enhancing music rhythmic perception and performance with a VR game

“…We analyzed how playing the four scenarios of the game daily for 14 days affected children's rhythmic perception and performance. We evaluated the effects using a pre-test and a post-test with the Tapping-PROMS test battery [24], while the user experience was analyzed with a User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ), along with additional questions about the participants' experience with the headset. The presented experiment therefore evaluates the effectiveness of a VR game for rhythmic training as a novel approach compared to more conventional e-learning tools, such as mobile and web applications, using the motor and sensory modalities of VR for a better user experience and increased motivation.…”

“…In subsequent years, the same group of researchers also developed shorter versions of the test battery in the form of the Short-PROMS and the Mini-PROMS [46]. For the purpose of this study, it was important to focus only on rhythmic skills, so we decided to use a recently introduced version of the PROMS test, called the Tapping-PROMS [24]. In it, the researchers presented a standardized rhythm tapping test that includes test items of varying complexity by using the rhythm and tempo subtests of the PROMS test battery.…”

“…For this reason, we rely on the one-tailed variant of the paired test and observe only whether the decrease in average test results and consequently increased performance can be considered statistically significant. To maintain comparability with the original study by [24], we use the threshold p < 0.05 to reject the null hypothesis of the tests performed.…”

Unlocking the musical brain: A proof-of-concept study on playing the piano in MRI scanner with naturalistic stimuli

“…Finally, we also introduce a novel way of scoring naturalistic musical performance. It is based on similarity to an errorless performance [ [33] , [34] , [35] ] using Levenshtein ratio [ 36 ] for melodic performance (the order of keys pressed), the rhythm-reproduction tapping-PROMS [ 37 ] approach for rhythmic performance, and can be easily scaled up for the analysis of naturalistic, polyphonic stimuli played on a tempered instrument, such as a piano of 60 keys or more.…”