Is It About Speech or About Prediction? Testing Between Two Accounts of the Rhythm-Reading Link

Abstract

Background/objectives: The mechanisms underlying the positive association between reading and rhythmic skills remain unclear. Our goal was to systematically test between two major explanations: the Temporal Sampling Framework (TSF), which highlights the relation between rhythm and speech encoding, and a competing explanation based on rhythm's role in enhancing prediction within visual and auditory sequences.

Methods: We compared beat versus duration perception for their associations with encoding and sequence learning (prediction-related) tasks, using both visual and auditory sequences. We also compared these associations for Portuguese vs. Greek participants, since Portuguese stress-timed rhythm is more compatible with music-like beats lasting around 500 ms, in contrast to the syllable-timed rhythm of Greek. If rhythm acts via speech encoding, its effects should be more salient in Portuguese.

Results: Consistent with the TSF's predictions, we found a significant association between beat perception and auditory encoding in Portuguese but not in Greek participants. Correlations between time perception and sequence learning in both modalities were either null or insufficiently supported in both groups.

Conclusions: Altogether, the evidence supported the TSF-related predictions in detriment of the Rhythm-as-Predictor (RaP) hypothesis.

Keywords: Temporal Sampling Framework; cross-linguistic comparison; reading; rhythmic skills; stress-timed rhythm.

Figure 1

Stimuli and experimental paradigm for the sequencing tasks. Note: ms = milliseconds; Ev = Encoding visual stimuli; SLv = Sequence Learning with visual stimuli; Ea = Encoding of auditory stimuli; Eaa = Encoding of auditory aperiodic stimuli; Eap = Encoding of auditory periodic stimuli; Sla = Sequence Learning with auditory stimuli; SLaa = Sequence learning with auditory aperiodic stimuli; SLap = Sequence Learning with auditory periodic stimuli.

Figure 2

Stimulus structure for the duration (irregular) and beat perception (regular). Straight lines indicate beep onsets.

Figure 3

Portuguese (PT) vs. Greek (GR) participants’ performance in the experimental tasks. Note: Ev = Encoding visual stimuli; SLv = Sequence Learning with visual stimuli; Eap = Encoding of auditory periodic stimuli; SLap = Sequence Learning with auditory periodic stimuli; Eaa = Encoding of auditory aperiodic stimuli; SLaa = Sequence learning with auditory aperiodic stimuli; B = beat perception; D = duration perception.

Figure 4

Correlations among the sequencing tasks. Note: Ev = Encoding visual stimuli; SLv = Sequence Learning with visual stimuli; Eap = Encoding of auditory periodic stimuli; SLap = Sequence Learning with auditory periodic stimuli; Eaa = Encoding of auditory aperiodic stimuli; SLaa = Sequence learning with auditory aperiodic stimuli. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.001, and *** p < 0.0001.