The Contribution of Anthropometric Factors to Individual Differences in the Perception of Rhythm

In a sample of 44 human subjects, aged between 18 and 38 years, two distinct measurement procedures were carried out: (1) a psychophysical procedure to determine ‘preferred beat rate’ and (2) standard anthropometry to determine mass and 6 skeletal dimensions. Additionally the factors of sex, age and musicianship were also assessed. ANOVAs were carried out with preferred beat rate as the dependent variable and each of the anthropometric variables as between-subjects factors, partitioned into two levels, defined by the 50th percentile. Significant effects were obtained for age, anthropometric factors and the interaction between age and sex, totalling about 40% of the explainable variance. No significant main effects of sex or musicianship were obtained.