| Abstract | Temporal binding (TB) refers to a subjective
contraction of the time that elapses between an action and a
delayed sensory consequence of it. The TB eVect has been
demonstrated primarily in tasks in which a key press triggers
a tone after a short delay and in which participants
judge the timing of one or both of these events relative to a
visual reference (e.g., a rotating clock hand). In the present
Experiments 1 and 2, musicians listened instead to an auditory
“clock” (a metronome) and occasionally made a tap
that triggered a delayed tone. The task was to judge
whether that test tone fell before, on, or after the midpoint
of the interval between two metronome tones. In a passive
control condition, participants judged test tones but did not
tap. The hypothesis was that the test tone would be perceived
as occurring earlier in the active than in the passive
condition. However, there was no difference in perceptual
judgments. Experiment 3 used a visual metronome as the
reference but again obtained negative results, despite
greater uncertainty of judgments. It is suggested that TB of
action consequences to actions does not occur when the reference
signal is rhythmic because such a context enables
participants (musicians, at least) to perceive and judge the
actual time of occurrence of the action-triggered tone. |