Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Recent studies provide experimental evidence for joint rushing - the phenomenon that participants in rhythmic group activities unintentionally increase their tempo. We hypothesized that joint rushing arises from the combined workings of established sensorimotor synchronization mechanisms (e.g., phase and period correction) with a simple phase advance mechanism that has been studied in mass-synchronizing insects. We invited musicians and non-musicians to participate in three tapping experiments. Participants were asked to continue to produce a constant target tempo alone (solo) or together with a partner (joint). The results show that joint rushing induces a lasting period correction but stops when auditory feedback of the partner’s taps is removed. Musical training reduced the magnitude of joint rushing but did not eliminate it. These results are consistent with our hypothesis that joint rushing occurs because adjustments induced by a simple phase advance mechanism alter the period of internal timekeeping.