Melody, not Beat Perception, Predicts Rhythmic Error Detection

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among beat perception, error detection, and musical experience. We presented monophonic rhythms using a piano timbre along with two measures of beat perception (Harvard Beat Finding and Interval Test [BFIT] and Goldsmiths Beat Alignment Test) and a measure of melodic error detection. College musicians’ (N = 43) ability to detect rhythm errors was not significantly correlated to their ability to perceive beat alignment (Goldsmiths test) or tempo change (BFIT). Age was related to performance on only one of the measures, the BFIT test. A regression model yielded pitch error detection as the only significant predictor of rhythmic error detection. We suggest that college musicians already possess a requisite ability for beat processing that allows them to perform error detection. The lack of relationship between beat perception and rhythmic error detection is explained by this requisite ability in the population, and we promote future research for pitch and rhythm processing as it relates to rhythm perception or performance.