Changes in Psychological Time When Attending to Different Temporal Structures in Music

Abstract

Abstract Music is an ephemeral form of art that works simultaneously on different structural levels, and may alter one’s experiences of time. This chapter reviews research on the perception of small- to large-scale temporal intervals in music, as well as thresholds for perception, working memory, and sensorimotor synchronization. Recent experiments with music ranging from 10 to 40 s in duration have found evidence for time dilations when synchronizing with different metrical levels of the same music. These changes in time perception can further be shaped by musical complexity or event density, by the listeners’ familiarity with the music, and their physiological arousal. It is argued that music not only facilitates the flexible coordination of joint activities such as dance, music may even have evolvedas a mechanism for altering the subjective passage of time, and for understanding the nature of time itself.