Commonality and variation in mental representations of music revealed by a cross-cultural comparison of rhythm priors in 15 countries

Music is present in every known society but varies from place to place. What, if anything, is universal to music cognition? We measured a signature of mental representations of rhythm in 39 participant groups in 15 countries, spanning urban societies and Indigenous populations. Listeners reproduced random ‘seed’ rhythms; their reproductions were fed back as the stimulus (as in the game of ‘telephone’), such that their biases (the prior) could be estimated from the distribution of reproductions. Every tested group showed a sparse prior with peaks at integer-ratio rhythms. However, the importance of different integer ratios varied across groups, often reflecting local musical practices. Our results suggest a common feature of music cognition: discrete rhythm ‘categories’ at small-integer ratios. These discrete representations plausibly stabilize musical systems in the face of cultural transmission but interact with culture-specific traditions to yield the diversity that is evident when mental representations are probed across many cultures

Commonality and variation in mental representations of music revealed by a cross-cultural comparison of rhythm priors in 15 countries

Music is present in every known society but varies from place to place. What, if anything, is universal to music cognition? We measured a signature of mental representations of rhythm in 39 participant groups in 15 countries, spanning urban societies and Indigenous populations. Listeners reproduced random 'seed' rhythms; their reproductions were fed back as the stimulus (as in the game of 'telephone'), such that their biases (the prior) could be estimated from the distribution of reproductions. Every tested group showed a sparse prior with peaks at integer-ratio rhythms. However, the importance of different integer ratios varied across groups, often reflecting local musical practices. Our results suggest a common feature of music cognition: discrete rhythm 'categories' at small-integer ratios. These discrete representations plausibly stabilize musical systems in the face of cultural transmission but interact with culture-specific traditions to yield the diversity that is evident when mental representations are probed across many cultures. [Abstract copyright: © 2024. The Author(s).

Commonality and variation in mental representations of music revealed by a cross-cultural comparison of rhythm priors in 15 countries

Music is present in every known society but varies from place to place. What, if anything, is universal to music cognition? We measured a signature of mental representations of rhythm in 39 participant groups in 15 countries, spanning urban societies and Indigenous populations. Listeners reproduced random ‘seed’ rhythms; their reproductions were fed back as the stimulus (as in the game of ‘telephone’), such that their biases (the prior) could be estimated from the distribution of reproductions. Every tested group showed a sparse prior with peaks at integer-ratio rhythms. However, the importance of different integer ratios varied across groups, often reflecting local musical practices. Our results suggest a common feature of music cognition: discrete rhythm ‘categories’ at small-integer ratios. These discrete representations plausibly stabilize musical systems in the face of cultural transmission but interact with culture-specific traditions to yield the diversity that is evident when mental representations are probed across many cultures

Commonality and variation in mental representations of music revealed by a cross-cultural comparison of rhythm priors in 15 countries

Music is present in every known society, yet varies from place to place. What, if anything, is universal to music cognition? We measured a signature of mental representations of rhythm in 39 participant groups in 15 countries, spanning urban societies and indigenous populations. Listeners reproduced random ‘‘seed’’ rhythms; their reproductions were fed back as the stimulus (as in the game of “telephone”), such that their biases (the prior) could be estimated from the distribution of reproductions. Every tested group showed a sparse prior with peaks at integer ratio rhythms. However, the importance of different integer ratios varied across groups, often reflecting local musical practices. Our results suggest a common feature of music cognition – discrete rhythm “categories” at small integer ratios. These discrete representations likely stabilize musical systems in the face of cultural transmission, but interact with culture-specific traditions to yield diversity evident when mental representations are probed across many cultures

Data for commonality and variation in mental representations of music revealed by a cross-cultural comparison of rhythm priors in 15 countries

Data from 39 participant groups from 15 countries

Commonality and variation in mental representations of music revealed by a cross-cultural comparison of rhythm priors in 15 countries.

Music is present in every known society but varies from place to place. What, if anything, is universal to music cognition? We measured a signature of mental representations of rhythm in 39 participant groups in 15 countries, spanning urban societies and Indigenous populations. Listeners reproduced random 'seed' rhythms; their reproductions were fed back as the stimulus (as in the game of 'telephone'), such that their biases (the prior) could be estimated from the distribution of reproductions. Every tested group showed a sparse prior with peaks at integer-ratio rhythms. However, the importance of different integer ratios varied across groups, often reflecting local musical practices. Our results suggest a common feature of music cognition: discrete rhythm 'categories' at small-integer ratios. These discrete representations plausibly stabilize musical systems in the face of cultural transmission but interact with culture-specific traditions to yield the diversity that is evident when mental representations are probed across many cultures

スギの無垢材を内装に用いた室内空間における人滞在時の吸湿作用の検証

本研究では，スギ無垢材を内装に用いた室内空間における人滞在時の吸湿作用の検証を目的とした。スギ（Cryptomeria japonica）の無垢材を内装に用いた建物（A棟）と，パーティクルボードや中密度繊維板の表面に木目調のビニールクロスで覆った内装材を用いた建物（B棟）において，人滞在時の室内の温度および湿度を調査した。2014年から2015年にかけて計4回，人滞在時における温湿度調査をした結果，A棟では，B棟と比較して有意に湿度の上昇が抑制されることが明らかとなった。このことは，無垢材を内装に用いたA棟は，B棟に比べて高い吸湿作用を有することを示唆する。// This study focused on the humidity-control performance of the wooden dwelling spaces, which is related to the habitability. To evaluate the moisture-absorption performance in a condition close to real life, the room temperature and relative humidity were measured in a room using naturally processed sugi （Cryptomeria japonica ） wood boards （Room A） and a room using chemically processed wood materials（Room B）as interior materials while subjects were asleep. The interior materials of Room A were free from chemical processing and those of Room B were comprised of bonded or coated woods. The results obtained from this study during 2014 and 2015 demonstrated that the Room A showed higher moisture-absorption performance than the Room B