The Effect of Rhythmic Cycle Length, Cultural Familiarity, and Musicianship on The Perception of North Indian Rhythmic Patterns.

The study explores the effect of length of rhythmic cycles, and the relationship between familiarity, musicianship and rhythmic cycle structure in their perception. While the impact of length has been explored for musical tones and words, this study extends the effect to the perception of rhythmic cycles, using four rhythmic patterns (with 7, 8, 10 and 16 beats), all derived from North Indian Classical Music. The results highlight that cultural exposure and musical training (not in the culture) affect one’s ability to learn and differentiate rhythmic patterns. Shorter rhythmic cycles were learned and recalled by Culturally Familiar Non-Musicians and Culturally Unfamiliar Musicians, while longer ones posed challenges. Culturally Unfamiliar Non-musician participants showed no learning or recall for the four rhythmic cycles. The effect of length did not stand in isolation and was impacted by the chunking process, observed when Culturally Unfamiliar Musicians differentiated the 10-beat rhythmic cycle even before learning.