Example distributions of response vectors.

<p>A: random distribution, B: bimodal distribution, C: unimodal distribution.</p

Produced metrical levels.

<p>Produced metrical levels.</p

Keeping the Beat: A Large Sample Study of Bouncing and Clapping to Music

<div><p>The vast majority of humans move in time with a musical beat. This behaviour has been mostly studied through finger-tapping synchronization. Here, we evaluate naturalistic synchronization responses to music–bouncing and clapping–in 100 university students. Their ability to match the period of their bounces and claps to those of a metronome and musical clips varying in beat saliency was assessed. In general, clapping was better synchronized with the beat than bouncing, suggesting that the choice of a specific movement type is an important factor to consider in the study of sensorimotor synchronization processes. Performance improved as a function of beat saliency, indicating that beat abstraction plays a significant role in synchronization. Fourteen percent of the population exhibited marked difficulties with matching the beat. Yet, at a group level, poor synchronizers showed similar sensitivity to movement type and beat saliency as normal synchronizers. These results suggest the presence of quantitative rather than qualitative variations when losing the beat.</p></div

Musical and dance experience of participants.

<p>Musical and dance experience of participants.</p

Characteristics of stimuli.

<p>Characteristics of stimuli.</p

Poor Synchronizers' profiles.

<p>Poor Synchronizers' profiles.</p

Period matching in Poor Synchronizers' group.

<p>We presented the number of success trials (i.e. period-matched), for each movement type and for all stimuli (maximum is 14, i.e. the number of poor synchronizers). The two Merengue and two Metronome were averaged.</p

Period matching in Normal Synchronizers' group.

<p>Bouncing and clapping scores were averaged for each stimulus and each participant (no interaction between Movement Type and Beat Saliency factors). Error bars represent standard deviations corrected for repeated measures.</p

Non-melodic task: <i>50 cents > Identical</i>.

<p>Non-melodic task: <i>50 cents > Identical</i>.</p

Melodic pitch discrimination (Melodic [<i>Out-of-tune > In-tune</i>] > Non-melodic [<i>50 cents > Identical</i>]).

<p>Melodic pitch discrimination (Melodic [<i>Out-of-tune > In-tune</i>] > Non-melodic [<i>50 cents > Identical</i>]).</p