Individual Differences in Musical Tempo Perception Are Predicted by Body Height, Age, Music and Dance Sophistication in an Online Paradigm Individuelle Unterschiede in musikalischer Tempowahrnehmung werden durch Körpergröße, Alter, Musik- und Tanzexpertise in einer Onlinestudie vorhergesagt

Abstract

The perception of musical tempo and/or beat has been studied extensively. However, the reasons for the subjective perception of a piece of music as fast or slow remain unclear. We propose that individuals form a long-term preferred motor tempo (LTPT), which is less susceptible to short-term influences (e.g. arousal) than the spontaneous motor tempo commonly used in studies. LTPT creates a framework in which musical tempo is evaluated: individuals with slower LTPT perceive music as faster compared to individuals with faster LTPT. Participants listened to 20 musical stimuli with different tempi (40–135 BPM, 5-BPM intervals) presented in randomized order. Immediately after listening, participants rated each stimulus on a 5-point slow-to-fast tempo scale. Using a linear mixed model, we found that stimulus tempo predicts perceived musical tempo and this effect is moderated by factors assumed to influence LTPT (height, age, music/dance sophistication). The moderation is dependent on the tempo range in which it occurs, mainly appearing at the higher and lower ends of the tempo scale used. Another tested factor, body weight, did not yield significant results and was removed in a backwards elimination procedure. Our data indicate that taller and younger participants perceive music as faster, that musically sophisticated participants tended to use the ends of the slow-to-fast scale (1 = very slow, 5 = very fast) less, and that more sophisticated dancers use these ends more.