Temporal stability of rhythmic tapping "on" and "off the beat": A developmental study

This study, following a dynamic pattern approach. examines age-related diff erences in the stability of unimanual rhythmic perception-action patterns. Thirty-sis children, aged 7, 9, and 11 years, attempted to synchronize thei r finger tapping to the beats of an auditory metronome, either "on the beat " (i.e., in-phase coordination), or "off the beat" (i.e., antiphase coordin ation). The temporal stability of these perception-action patterns was meas ured by the variability of the relative phase between taps and auditory eve nts and by the critical frequency, that is, the frequency at which a loss o f stability was observed when the metronome frequency was increased. Age-re lated differences in stability were found for both relative phase variabili ty and critical frequency. These findings suggest that the relative phase d ynamics underlying perception-action coordination patterns change with age in the direction of an increased temporal stability.