Skip to main content
Article
Timing Variability in Circle Drawing and Tapping: Probing the Relationship Between Event and Emergent Timing
Journal of Motor Behavior (2005)
  • Howard N. Zelaznik
  • Rebecca M. C. Spencer, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
  • Richard B. Ivry
  • Alex Baria
  • Melissa Bloom
  • Lisa Dolansky
  • Shannon Justice
  • Kristen Patterson
  • Emily Whetter
Abstract
R. Ivry, R. M. Spencer, H. N. Zelaznik, and J. Diedrichsen (2002) have proposed a distinction between timed movements in which a temporal representation is part of the task goal (event timing) and those in which timing properties are emergent. The issue addressed in the present experiment was how timing in conditions conducive to emergent timing becomes established. According to what the authors term the transformation hypothesis, timing initially requires an event-based representation when the temporal goal is defined externally (e.g., by a metronome), but over the first few movement cycles, control processes become established that allow timing to become emergent. Different groups of participants (N = 84) executed either 1 timed interval, 4 timed intervals, or 2 timed intervals separated by a pause. They produced the intervals by either circle drawing, a task associated with emergent timing, or tapping, a task associated with event timing. Analyses of movement variability suggested that similar timing processes were used in the 2 tasks only during the 1st interval. Those results are consistent with the transformation hypothesis and lead to the inference that the transition from event-based control to emergent timing can occur rapidly during continuous movements.
Keywords
  • motor performance,
  • tapping,
  • timing,
  • timing variability
Disciplines
Publication Date
September, 2005
Publisher Statement
DOI: 10.3200

This is the author's manuscript harvested from NIH. The published version is available at http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjmb20#.Ud2EG9hbsSU.

Citation Information
Howard N. Zelaznik, Rebecca M. C. Spencer, Richard B. Ivry, Alex Baria, et al.. "Timing Variability in Circle Drawing and Tapping: Probing the Relationship Between Event and Emergent Timing" Journal of Motor Behavior Vol. 37 Iss. 5 (2005)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/rebecca_spencer/4/