The ability to perceive repetition and change in rhythm is fundamental to music understanding. How is this ability affected by other musical dimensions, such as pitch? We compared the perception of rhythmic repetition and change in rhythm-only stimuli versus rhythm-and-pitch stimuli. A sample of 357 participants, aged from 6 to 22 years, performed Same (repetition) versus Different (change) judgments on rhythmic stimuli with and without concurrent pitch variation. Rhythm-and-pitch stimuli impaired the perception of rhythmic repetition but not the perception of change, and this was independent from participants’ age. Our findings are consistent with two concurrent effects of pitch on rhythmic perception: a change-highlighting effect, acting only in rhythmic change, and a working-memory-overload effect that acts in both repetition and change. We discuss the implications regarding composer–listener communication across development.

中文翻译：

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在整个发展过程中感知节奏性重复和变化：并发音高的影响

感知重复和节奏变化的能力是理解音乐的基础。此能力如何受到音高等其他音乐维度的影响？我们比较了节律重复和仅节律刺激与节律和音调刺激的变化。样本年龄为6至22岁的357名参与者在有和没有同时音高变化的情况下，对节奏刺激进行了相同（重复）与不同（变化）判断。节奏和音调刺激削弱了节奏重复的感知，但没有改变变化的感知，这与参与者的年龄无关。我们的发现与音高对节奏感知的两个同时影响相一致：变化突出显示效果（仅在节奏变化中起作用）和工作记忆超负荷效果（在重复和变化中起作用）。