Delayed auditory feedback in synchronization

Abstract

In two experiments, the effect of feedback delay on synchronization performance was examined. In Experiment 1, whether feedback delay has an effect on the asynchrony between tap and click was investigated, and a transfer effect between conditions, observed in a preliminary experiment, was studied. Experiment 2 served as a control experiment that assured that the effects were not caused by order effects. A linear relationship between the size of the delay and the asynchrony between tap and click was observed; that is, with increasing delay, the size of the asynchrony increased as well. The results support an extended version of the Paillard-Fraisse hypothesis that accounts for the results observed in synchronization tasks in which more than a single source of feedback from the tap is available. The results indicate that all tap-related information is integrated into a joint event code representing that tap at a central level. These codes are superimposed on click-related codes and are therefore responsible for the observed asynchronies. Moreover, the results suggest that tap-related codes arise from a linear combination of their tactile-kinesthetic and auditory components.