Disco Time: The Relationship Between Perceived Duration and Tempo in Music

Abstract

Our perception of the duration of a piece of music is related to its tempo. When listening to music, absolute durations may seem longer as the tempo—the rate of an underlying pulse or beat—increases. Yet, the perception of tempo itself is not absolute. In a study on perceived tempo, participants were able to distinguish between different tempo-shifted versions of the same song (± 5 beats per minute (BPM)), yet their tempo ratings did not match the actual BPM rates; this finding was called tempo anchoring effect (TAE). In order to gain further insights into the relation between duration and tempo perception in music, the present study investigated the effect of musical tempo on two different duration measures, to see if there is an analog to the TAE in duration perception. Using a repeated-measures design, 32 participants (16 musicians) were randomly presented with instrumental excerpts of Disco songs at the original tempi and in tempo-shifted versions. The tasks were (a) to reproduce the absolute duration of each stimulus (14–20 s), (b) to estimate the absolute duration of the stimuli in seconds, and (c) to rate the perceived tempo. Results show that duration reproductions were longer with faster tempi, yet no such effect was found for duration estimations. Thus, lower-level reproductions were affected by the tempo, but higher-level estimations were not. The tempo-shifted versions showed no effect on both duration measures, suggesting that the tempo difference for the duration-lengthening effect requires a difference of at least 20 BPM, depending on the duration measure. Results of perceived tempo replicated the typical rating pattern of the TAE, but this was not found in duration measures. The roles of spontaneous motor tempo and musical experience are discussed, and implications for future studies are given.