Mari Riess Jones

Dynamic attending and responses to time

A temporally based theory of attending is proposed that assumes that the structure of world events affords different attending modes. Future-oriented attending supports anticipatory behaviors and occurs with highly coherent temporal events. Time judgments, given this attending mode, axe influenced by the way an events ending confirms or violates temporal expectancies. Analytic attending supports other activities (e.g., grouping, counting), and if it occurs with events of low temporal coherence, then time judgments depend on the attending levels involved. A weighted contrast model describes over- and underestimations of event durations. The model applies to comparative duration judgments of equal and unequal time intervals; its rationale extends to temporal productions/extrapolations. Two experiments compare predictions of the contrast model with those derived from other traditional approaches. One characteristic of modern society is a preoccupation with fixed time schedules and standardized timekeepers. We maintain appointments at hourly intervals, rush to meet the 5:00 p.m. bus, and dine at predetermined hours. Yet our natural ability to judge time remains poorly understood. How often do we estimate the time elapsed since last glancing at a clock and discover with surprise that we were fairly accurate? Surprise is understandable because at least as often we lose track of time and err. The validity of these impressions is confirmed by laboratory research showing that duration judgments depend not only on actual physical duration but also on a variety of non

Time, Our Lost Dimension: Toward a New Theory of Perception, Attention, and Memory

A theory of perception and attention that emphasizes the relational nature o{ perceptual invariants is developed within the context of auditory pattern research. The theory is divided into two parts. The first part, addresses world pattern structure; the second describes interaction of organisms with pattern structure. Tn the former, world patterns arc subjectively represented as nested relations within a multidimensional space defined by pilch, loudncss, and time. But dependency of these defining dimensions means that a patterns lime scale determines the serial integrity of its pitch/loudness structure. Second, the theory proposes a time scale for living things that is manifest in graded perceptual rhythms. These rhythms can be synchronized to corresponding nested time zones within world pattern structure. Related assumptions about the deployment of physical energy across time zones and cognitive locations of perceptual rhythms lead to a simple, but general, attentional theory. Theoretical support, found in research with tone patterns, speech, and sequences of noise is died in a final section. Beyond this focal research, the theory offers a general framework for understanding diverse phenomena thai range from speech perception and aphasia to sleep, growth, and time eslimation.

Temporal Aspects of Stimulus-Driven Attending in Dynamic Arrays:

Auditory sequences of tones were used to examine a form of stimulus-driven attending that involves temporal expectancies and is influenced by stimulus rhythm. Three experiments examined the influence of sequence timing on comparative pitch judgments of two tones (standard, comparison) separated by interpolated pitches. In two of the experiments, interpolated tones were regularly timed, with onset times of comparison tones varied relative to this rhythm. Listeners were most accurate judging the pitch of rhythmically expected tones and least accurate with very unexpected ones. This effect persisted over time, but disappeared when the rhythm of interpolated tones was either missing or irregular.

Expectancy, Attention, and Time ☆

Seven experiments examine the influence of contextual timing manipulations on prospective time judgments. Subjects judged durations of standard vs comparison time intervals in the context of a preceding induction (context) sequence. In some experiments, the rate of the induction sequence was systematically manipulated relative to the range of to-be-judged standard time intervals; in others, the induction sequence was omitted. Time judgments were strongly influenced by the rate of an induction sequence with best performance occurring when the standard time interval ended as expected, given context rate. An expectancy profile, in the form of an inverted U, indicated that time estimation accuracy declined systematically as a standard interval differed from a context rate. A similar expectancy profile emerged when the context rate was based on a harmonic subdivision (one-half) of an expected standard interval. Results are discussed in terms of various stimulus-based models of prospective time judgments, including those which appeal to attentional periodicities and entrainment.

The time of our lives: Life span development of timing and event tracking

Life span developmental profiles were constructed for 305 participants (ages 4-95) for a battery of paced and unpaced perceptual-motor timing tasks that included synchronize-continue tapping at a wide range of target event rates. Two life span hypotheses, derived from an entrainment theory of timing and event tracking, were tested. A preferred period hypothesis predicted a monotonic slowing of a preferred rate (tempo) of event tracking across the life span. An entrainment region hypothesis predicted a quadratic profile in the range of event rates that produced effective timing across the life span; specifically, age-specific entrainment regions should be narrower in childhood and late adulthood than in midlife. Findings across tasks provide converging support for both hypotheses. Implications of these findings are discussed for understanding critical periods in development and age-related slowing of event timing.

Modeling effects of rhythmic context on perceived duration: a comparison of interval and entrainment approaches to short-interval timing.

Relative merits of interval and entrainment conceptions of the internal clock were assessed within a common theoretical framework by 4 time-judgment experiments. The timing of tone onsets marking the beginning and ending of standard and comparison time intervals relative to a context rhythm were manipulated: onsets were on time, early, or late relative to the implied rhythm, and 2 distinct accuracy patterns emerged. A quadratic ending profile indicated best performance when the standard ended on time and worst performance when it was early or late, whereas a flat beginning profile (Experiments 1-3) indicated uniform performance for the 3 expectancy conditions. Only in Experiment 4, in which deviations from expected onset times were large, did significant effects of beginning times appear in time-discrimination thresholds and points of subjective equality. Findings are discussed in the context of theoretical assumptions about clock resetting, the representation of time, and independence of successive time intervals.

Dynamic pattern structure in music: recent theory and research

Recent theory and research addressed to dynamic pattern structure in music is reported. Dynamic pattern structure refers to the ways in which rhythm and melody combine; it is summarized here in terms of the constructof joint accent structure. Properties of joint accent structures involving accent couplings and time symmetries are used to address standard psychological issues of pattern similarity and pattern simplicity as they are realized in musical tasks. In particular, experimental work on melody recognition reveals the importance of formalizations concerning dynamic pattern similarities, and other research on reproductions of music-like patterns reveals the potential of a time-based approach to dynamic pattern simplicity.

Controlled attending as a function of melodic and temporal context

Melodic and rhythmic context were systematically varied in a pattern recognition task involving pairs (standard-comparison) of nine-tone auditory sequences. The experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that rhythmic context can direct attention toward or away from tones which instantiate higher order melodic rules. Three levels of melodic structure (one, two, no higher order rules) were crossed with four levels of rhythm [isochronous, dactyl (A U U), anapest (U U A), irregular]. Rhythms were designed to shift accent locations on three centrally embedded tones. Listeners were more accurate in detecting violations of higher order melodic rules when the rhythmic context induced accents on tones which instantiated these rules. Effects are discussed in terms of attentional rhythmicity.

Tests of Parallel Versus Integrated Structure in Polyrhythmic Tapping

Musically trained subjects tapped three beats with their right hand versus two beats with their left hand in synchrony with two corresponding tones. For independent groups of subjects, the pitch difference of the two tones was either small to encourage an integrated perceptual organization or large to encourage a streamed perceptual organization. Integrated versus parallel motor organization was tested by examining the pattern of covariances among intertap intervals. All subjects exhibited integrated motor organization. An integrated multiplicative hierarchical model of motor organization was superior to a serial chained model and to an independent hierarchical model in describing the pattern of covariances. The subjects who heard tones that encouraged an integrated percept performed with less variability than the subjects who heard tones that encouraged a streamed percept. This superior performance with an integrated motor organization and an integrated rather than a streamed perceptual organization is interpreted as evidence for temporal perceptual-motor compatibility.

On marching to two different drummers: perceptual aspects of the difficulties

People have remarkable difficulty generating two responses that must follow different temporal sequences, unless the temporal patterns are simply related (e.g., periods in 2:1, 3:1 relation). For example, it is hard to tap to two conflicting rhythms presented concurrently (i.e., a polyrhythm) using the right and left hands (Klapp, 1979), or to tap while articulating a conflicting speech utterance (Klapp, 1981). The present experiments indicate that difficulties in processing conflicting rhythms occur even when people must (a) merely monitor the stimuli and indicate the termination of one rhythmic sequence or (b) tap with a single hand. Responding to polyrhythms is thus difficult even without multiple limb coordination. Furthermore, the difficulty of two-handed tapping to polyrhythms that involve two different tones was found to decrease as the pitch difference between the tones was decreased. This result indicates that the difficulty of rhythmic coordination can be perceptually manipulated in a striking fashion. Polyrhythmic performance thus provides an excellent opportunity for examining possible interactions of perceptual and motor organizations.