Rhythm and timing in skill.

Abstract

The concept of rhythm points to diverse phenomena in skilled performance. A theoretical frame sufficiently general to deal with these is presented, together with data from a variety of skills. It is argued that a motor system, responsible for movement production, can produce movements that realize given time-scales and hence can act as a timekeeper. In contexts requiring temporal coordination, a more abstract timekeeper, or clock, can provide temporal references for a motor system or several motor subsystems; this enables complex timing such as is found in musical performance. Skilled movement is teleological in the sense that it aims at targets in space and time. Its timing is based on an internal schedule of motor events-the targets of movement-not movement onsets: The motor system arranges the latter on considerations of movement economy or expressiveness. Tapping, handwriting, typing, playing music, and speech are examined as instances of skills having a near-miss periodicity."Skilled performance is rhythmical." Like many apparent truisms this one is weakened by ambiguity, in this case in the meaning of rhythm. If we ask what is common between the rhythms of speech, playing tennis, and playing music, we find that it refers to different properties of time series, relevant in varying degrees to the different skills. Among these are properties of temporal pattern, periodicity, stress, expression, and quality of movement. The purpose here is to develop a theoretical frame for rhythm that can encompass this variety of phenomena.We can illustrate the different senses of rhythm by taking music as a paradigm of serial-structured forms. Excluding some of folk music and a handful of modern freeform compositions, the timing in a piece of

Timing in talking: what is it used for, and how is it controlled?

“….' This type of example suggests that timing variability is different at target attainment versus movement onset, difficult to explain in mass-spring models such as AP/TD, but easier to explain in extrinsic timing models because they can allow separate timing specification and prioritization for target attainment versus other parts of movement [100]. Several studies have confirmed the finding of differential variability in the timing of target attainment, compared with the timing of other movement events such as movement onset ( [91,[101][102][103][104], for non-speech motor activity; [105] for speech).…”

Dynamic attending and responses to time.

“…There is evidence for preferred, simple time ratios in produced rhythms (Essens, 1986;Fraisse, 1956Fraisse, , 1964Fraisse, , 1982Povel, 1981;. Furthermore, skilled musicihns often accurately produce higher order time spans and complex rhythmic ratios ~° (Clarke, 1985a(Clarke, , 1985bShaffer, 1981Shaffer, , 1982. We claim that many deviations that do occur are most reasonably represented as additive time changes that arise either from a performer's (a) failure to capture difficult ratio notations and/or (b) conscious attempts to communicate rhythmic style (e.g., legato, staccato) or emotion via tempo change (Clarke, 1984;Gabrielsson, 1974;Gabrielsson, Bengtsson, & Gabrielsson, 1983; Shalfer, Clarke, & Todd, 1985).…”

Chronometric comparisons of imagery to action: Visualizing versus physically performing springboard dives

“…In hierarchical theories of motor control (MacKay, 1982(MacKay, , 1989Shaffer, 1980Shaffer, , 1982 and theories of mental practice (Feltz & Landers, 1983;Feltz, Landers, & Becker, 1988), it is speculated that the two types of performance share the higher, cognitive levels of the hierarchy but differ in terms of the level at which performance output occurs. In experiments assessing practice and transfer effects for speech production, MacKay (1981) demonstrated that there are similarities between mental and physical practice and that mental execution times reflect internal processing.…”