Auditory masking and the Precedence Effect in Studies of Musical Timekeeping

Musical timekeeping is an important and evolving area of research with applications in a variety of music education and performance situations. Studies in this field are of ten concerned with being able to measure the accuracy or consistency of human participants, for whatever purpose is being investigated. Our initial explorations suggest that little has been done to consider the role that auditory masking, specifically the precedence effect, plays in the study of human timekeeping tasks. In this paper, we highlight the importance of integrating masking into studies of timekeeping and suggest areas for discussion and future research, to address shortfalls in the literature