Cross-Modal Perception of Musical Tempo
Abstract:
As every musician knows, tempo is more than simply a matter of a metronome setting or the rate of the shortest notes on the rhythmic surface of the music. Visual cues may also affect perceived tempo, and when they do, we have have to integrate both auditory and visual information into a coherent percept of musical speed and motion. This talk will present results from a recent study on the effect of beat rate, event density, motor behavior, and observed motion (i.e., watching someone else dance to the music) on tempo perception. The importance of using ecologically valid stimuli (i.e., real music) in experimental studies of music perception in general and cross-modal perception in particular will also be discussed.
The Department of Music acknowledges the generous support of the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Fund at Yale University for assistance with this series.