Interval Timing in Spoken Lists of Words

Abstract

Isochronous interval production with discrete motor responses has been studied most intensively by using well-practiced tapping in a synchronization/continuation paradigm. Somewhat fewer studies have examined the timing of shorter sequences of intervals that may be susceptible to metrical grouping. I here look at the attempted isochronous production of lists of eight trochees and examine the resulting interval patterns both in terms of the Wing-Kristofferson model (A. M. Wing & A. B. Kristofferson, 1973) and Rosenbaum�s hierarchical timing model (D. A. Rosenbaum, S. B. Kenny, & M. A. Derr, 1983). In Experiment 1, readings are self- paced and done under conditions of uncertainty. The Wing-Kristofferson model is not applicable to the data, which more closely resemble data exhibiting hierarchical control of intervals. In Experiment 2, readings are paced, well-practiced, and done without uncertainty. Neither Wing and Kristofferson�s model nor Rosenbaum�s model adequately captures the serial dependencies observed, although under these conditions variability is greatly reduced. In both experiments, there are dependencies between nonadjacent intervals that neither model can yet account for.