Stability of Tempo Perception in Music Listening

Abstract

This study was designed to determine whether listeners from different age groups and musical backgrounds (musicians and non-musicians) could set tempi in a consistent manner over an extended period. The variables of musical style, familiarity, and preference were also considered. Subjects heard the same six compositions on four separate occasions. The order of the presentation and the initial tempo of the examples were varied systematically in each session. Subjects were asked to listen to each composition and indicate whether the experimenter should set the tempo faster or slower until it sounded ‘right’ to them; they had to adjust an initially ‘wrong’ tempo to a personally preferred tempo . Results indicated that the initial tempo significantly dominated subjects' ‘correct’ tempo judgements: the slower initial tempo generally evoked slower tempo selections, and so on. However, a relatively small number of adults, mostly musicians, were remarkably consistent in their tempo judgements across all four trials. It appeared that these individuals possess an exceptional ability with respect to acute stability of large-scale timing in music. There was also evidence that the degree of consistency in correct tempo judgements gradually increased from preadolescence through adulthood. Few statistically significant differences in consistency of tempo judgements were found as a result of musical background. The findings strongly suggested that the style of musical examples influenced the degree of tempo consistency across trials. Moreover, there was statistically significant evidence that an increase of familiarity with, and preference for, the musical examples and the musical styles resulted in an increase of consistency of correct tempo judgements. The study concludes with recommendations for music education.