Dance and Music in "Gangnam Style": How Dance Observation Affects Meter Perception

Abstract

Dance and music often co-occur as evidenced when viewing choreographed dances or singers moving while performing. This study investigated how the viewing of dance motions shapes sound perception. Previous research has shown that dance reflects the temporal structure of its accompanying music, communicating musical meter (i.e. a hierarchical organization of beats) via coordinated movement patterns that indicate where strong and weak beats occur. Experiments here investigated the effects of dance cues on meter perception, hypothesizing that dance could embody the musical meter, thereby shaping participant reaction times (RTs) to sound targets occurring at different metrical positions.In experiment 1, participants viewed a video with dance choreography indicating 4/4 meter (dance condition) or a series of color changes repeated in sequences of four to indicate 4/4 meter (picture condition). A sound track accompanied these videos and participants reacted to timbre targets at different metrical positions. Participants had the slowest RT's at the strongest beats in the dance condition only. In experiment 2, participants viewed the choreography of the horse-riding dance from Psy's "Gangnam Style" in order to examine how a familiar dance might affect meter perception. Moreover, participants in this experiment were divided into a group with experience dancing this choreography and a group without experience. Results again showed slower RTs to stronger metrical positions and the group with experience demonstrated a more refined perception of metrical hierarchy. Results likely stem from the temporally selective division of attention between auditory and visual domains. This study has implications for understanding: 1) the impact of splitting attention among different sensory modalities, and 2) the impact of embodiment, on perception of musical meter. Viewing dance may interfere with sound processing, particularly at critical metrical positions, but embodied familiarity with dance choreography may facilitate meter awareness. Results shed light on the processing of multimedia environments.

Fig 1. Schematic figure to show four metrical positions, where sound targets occur in reference to dance and the basic pattern of motions used in the dance condition.

This pattern comprises two measures of four beats (one beat = 500ms), and it repeats 64 times for 256 seconds in a mini-block.

Fig 2. The basic pattern of the circle color changes used in the picture condition.

This picture pattern comprises two measures of four beats (one beat = 500ms), and it repeats 64 times for 256 seconds in a mini-block.

Fig 3. Motion magnitude changes in the dance pattern used for the first experiment displayed as a function of time.

The basic dance pattern is 4 seconds, comprising two measures of four beats. The gray windows represent the timing points when the timbre targets of MP1, MP4, MP5, and MP8 are presented. The width of each window corresponds to the duration of each target. For the mean motion magnitudes used in Fig 4B, we averaged the magnitudes within the window of each metrical position for all measures.

Fig 4. Results of Experiment 1.

A. The mean RTs for the four metrical positions for each condition when averaged across measure. Error bars represent ± SE. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01 B. The mean motion magnitude of the dance video corresponding to each metrical position. Error bars represent ± SD.

Fig 5. The basic dance pattern of the horse-riding dance video used for the second experiment.

The dance pattern comprises four measures of four beats (one beat = 500ms), and it repeats 32 times for 256 seconds in a mini-block.

Fig 6. Motion magnitude changes in the horse-riding dance pattern used for the second experiment as a function of time.

The basic dance pattern is 8 seconds, and it comprises four measures of four beats. The gray windows represent the timing points when the sound targets of MP1, MP4, MP5, and MP8 are presented. The width of each window corresponds to the duration of each target.

Fig 7. Results of Experiment 2.

A. The mean RTs for the four metrical positions for each group, with experience (yellow line) and without experience (black line) with the horse-riding dance. The dotted gray line represents the mean RTs in the control condition of Experiment 1. Error bars represent ± SE. * p < 0.05, and ** p < 0.01. ~* indicates marginal significance at the level of p = 0.05 B. The mean motion magnitude derived from the dance video for each metrical position. Error bars represent ± SD.

Fig 8. Results of Experiment 2.

A. The mean RTs for the four metrical positions in the first (blue line) and second measure (orange line). The gray dotted line represents the mean RTs in the control condition of Experiment 1. Error bars represent ± SE. ** p < 0.01.