Studies of speech tempo commonly use syllable or segment rate as a proxy measure for perceived tempo. In languages whose phonologies allow substantial syllable complexity these measures can produce figures on quite different scales; however, little is known about the correlation between syllable and segment rate measurements on the one hand and naïve listeners’ tempo judgements on the other. We...

The number of scholars following the tempo approach in fertility continues to grow, whereas tempo-adjustment in mortality generally still is rejected. This rejection is irrational in principle, as the basic idea behind the tempo approach is independent of the kind of demographic event. Providing the first empirical application to a substantial problem, this chapter shows that mortality tempo-ad...

We will demonstrate our content-based music information retrieval system with automatic DJ mixing, which proposes a new, entertaining way to listen to MIR results. Typical MIR systems present MIR results to the user in a list format, from which users select and play songs. In order to improve this dull user experience, our system not only conducts content-based MIR, but also automatically mixes...

The question as to whether or not tempo effects distort the measurement of period mortality is controversial in recent demographic research. Only few publications, however, illustrate the underlying phenomenon of tempo effects, namely that the period death rate may increase although the mortality of all cohorts living during the analyzed period has fallen. Moreover, related literature only focu...

The present study reexamined the mood-mediation hypothesis for explaining background-music-dependent effects in free recall. Experiments 1 and 2 respectively examined tempo- and tonality-dependent effects in free recall, which had been used as evidence for the mood-mediation hypothesis. In Experiments 1 and 2, undergraduates (n = 75 per experiment) incidentally learned a list of 20 unrelated wo...

Photooxidation of alcohols to the corresponding aldehydes with a porphyrin/quinone/TEMPO (TEMPO=2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy free radical) system is described. This photoreaction is a combination of a photoinduced electron transfer from the porphyrin to the quinone and a TEMPO-catalyzed oxidation of alcohols triggered by one electron oxidation. The rates of oxidation were in the order o...

We investigated effects of legato, staccato and pizzicato articulation styles on the perception of modulated tempos. Seventy-two music majors served as participants. Two solo violin excerpts were chosen with contrasting rhythmic rates and were recorded in all three articulation styles. Examples were presented to listeners in three conditions of tempo modulation: gradual increase, gradual decrea...

This study examines the question of whether global tempo and expressive timing microstructure are independent in the aesthetic judgment of music performance. Measurements of tone interonset intervals in pianists' performances of pieces by Schumann ("Traumerei") and Debussy ("La fille aux cheveux de lin") at three different tempi show a tendency toward reduced (relative) expressive timing variat...

Perceptual invariance has been studied and found in several domains of cognition, including those of speech, motor behavior, and object motion. It has also been the topic of several studies in music perception. However, the existing perceptual studies present rather inconclusive evidence with regard to the perceptual invariance of expressive timing under tempo transformation in music performanc...

This study aimed to explore the effects of musical tempo on three psychological variables; stress, mood and self-efficacy. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the UWIST Mood Adjective Checklist (UMACL) and the Generalised Self-efficacy Scale (GSES) were used as measurement. Digital recording technology was used to create two versions of a piece of music that varied in tempo but held pitch and oth...