Rhythmic Structure, Working Memory Capacity, and Chunking in the Perception of Unfamiliar Long Rhythmic Cycles

<ns3:p>Research on rhythm perception has largely focused on short rhythmic structures typical in Western music, leaving a gap in the understanding of the perception of longer and complex rhythmic cycles found in other musical traditions. North Indian Classical Music (NICM) features long rhythmic cycles varying in structure, duration, and number of beats. These rhythmic cycles exist in the NICM tradition and go beyond the known limits of working memory and psychological present (2–3 seconds). This study investigates how unfamiliar musicians, with no prior exposure to NICM, perceive these long rhythmic cycles, focusing on working memory capacity and chunking strategy. Participants completed a rhythm discrimination task involving NICM cycles that varied in duration, number of beats, and rhythmic structure (isochronous vs. non-isochronous). The study also contained a digit-span task to assess memory capacity, followed by selecting a visualised grouping structure of the rhythmic cycle. Results revealed a significant positive correlation between digit-span scores and rhythm discrimination accuracy. Rhythm discrimination accuracy declined as cycle duration increased, and performance was better for isochronous rhythm cycles than non-isochronous ones. There was also an effect of length (number of beats) for rhythm discrimination of non-isochronous rhythm cycles. Furthermore, chunking strategies were associated with higher rhythm discrimination accuracy, for shorter and not for longer rhythmic cycles.</ns3:p>