[Dynamic Attending Binds Time and Rhythm Perception].

Relations between time and rhythm perception are discussed in this review of psychophysical research relevant to the multiple-look effect and dynamic-attending theory. Discrimination of two neighboring intervals that are marked by three successive sounds is improved when the presentation of the first (standard, S) interval is repeated before that of the second (comparison, C), as SSSSC. This improvement in sensitivity, called the multiple-look effect, occurs because listeners (1) perceive regular rhythm during the repetition of the standard interval, (2) predict the timing of subsequent sounds, and (3) detect sounds that are deviated from the predicted timing. The dynamic-attending theory attributes such predictions to the entrainment of attentional rhythms. An endogenous attentional rhythm is synchronized with the periodic succession of sounds marking the repeated standard. The standard and the comparison are discriminated on the basis of whether the ending marker of the comparison appears at the peak of the entrained attentional rhythm. This theory is compatible with the findings of recent neurophysiological studies that relate temporal prediction to neural oscillations.