Spontaneous Motor Tempo: Investigating Psychological, Chronobiological, and Demographic Factors in a Large-Scale Online Tapping Experiment

Abstract

The spontaneous motor tempo (SMT) describes the pace of regular and repeated movements such as hand clapping or walking. It is typically measured by letting people tap with their index finger at a pace that feels most natural and comfortable to them. A number of factors have been suggested to influence the SMT, such as age, time of the day, arousal, and potentially musical experience. This study aimed at investigating the effects of these factors in a combined and out-of-the-lab context by implementing the finger-tapping paradigm in an online experiment using a self-developed web application. Due to statistical multimodality in the distribution of participants' SMT (N = 3,576), showing peaks at modes of around 250 ms, a Gaussian mixture model was applied that grouped participants into six clusters, ranging from Very Fast (M = 265 ms, SD = 74) to Very Slow (M = 1,757 ms, SD = 166). These SMT clusters differed in terms of age, suggesting that older participants had a slower SMT, and time of the day, showing that the earlier it was, the slower participants' SMT. While arousal did not differ between the SMT clusters, more aroused participants showed faster SMTs across all normalized SMT clusters. Effects of musical experience were inconclusive. With a large international sample, these results provide insights into factors influencing the SMT irrespective of cultural background, which can be seen as a window into human timing processes.

Spontaneous motor tempo over the course of a week: the role of the time of the day, chronotype, and arousal

“…In the study of spontaneous motor tempo (SMT), one of the main research questions relates to factors influencing its pace. The SMT typically clusters around 2 Hz (Collyer et al, 1994 ; Fraisse, 1982 ), yet intra-individual changes in the pace of the SMT have been suggested to be based on the circadian rhythm (Hammerschmidt et al, 2021 ; Moussay et al, 2002 ). The purpose of the current study was to further investigate this effect by measuring participants’ SMT four times a day over seven consecutive days in their everyday life.…”

“…Furthermore, since there are different chronotypes, a potential influence of participants’ individual 24-h sleep and activity cycle (i.e., chronotype) was also investigated. As previous studies did find differences in the pace of the SMT based on physiological arousal changes (Boltz, 1994 ; Dosseville et al, 2002 ), and musical experience (Drake et al, 2000 ; Hammerschmidt et al, 2021 ), participants’ arousal level and musical sophistication were also taken into account as further predictors.…”

“…This result suggests a direct influence of the circadian rhythm on the SMT. Further support for this stems from a large-scale online study with N = 3756 participants investigating effects of psychological, chronobiological, and demographic factors on the SMT (Hammerschmidt et al, 2021 ). In this study, participants tapped at a tempo that felt most natural and comfortable in that moment on a device of their choice using a browser-based web application.…”

“…On the other hand, in another study on the effects of perceived arousal in music and cognitive load, no differences in duration judgments were reported between high and low arousal music when the tempo was kept constant, and no influence of the SMT was found in contrast to significant effects of attention and cognitive load on time perception (Wöllner & Hammerschmidt, 2021 ). Regarding felt arousal in contrast to induced arousal, an online-study measuring SMT using a finger-tapping paradigm showed that participants who rated their arousal level as high showed a faster SMT as well (Hammerschmidt et al, 2021 ). Physiological changes in the body (e.g., heart rate, cortical blood flow) evoked by physical activity are closely related to the arousal level (Fisher, 2014 ; Nobrega et al, 2014 ), yet the relationship between physiological arousal and SMT remain inconclusive.…”

“…Perhaps the most consistently reported effect influencing the SMT is age. Multiple studies showed that the pace of the SMT slows down with higher age (Baudouin et al, 2004 ; Hammerschmidt et al, 2021 ; McAuley et al, 2006 ), either reflecting a slowing down of internal timing processes or a decline in cognitive and behavioral speed caused by changes in the neuromuscular system (Salthouse, 2010 ; Seidler et al, 2010 ; Surwillo, 1968 ). Musical experience has also been suggested to have an effect on the SMT.…”