Dynamic Allocation of Attention To Metrical and Grouping Accents in Rhythmic Sequences

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Exp Brain Res (2011) 210:269–282

DOI 10.1007/s00221-011-2630-2

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Dynamic allocation of attention to metrical and grouping accents


in rhythmic sequences
Shu-Jen Kung • Ovid J. L. Tzeng • Daisy L. Hung •

Denise H. Wu

Received: 13 October 2010 / Accepted: 7 March 2011 / Published online: 26 March 2011
Ó Springer-Verlag 2011

Abstract Most people find it easy to perform rhythmic expertise not only enhances attention to metrical accents
movements in synchrony with music, which reflects their but also heightens sensitivity to perceptual grouping.
ability to perceive the temporal periodicity and to allocate
attention in time accordingly. Musicians and non-musi- Keywords Meter  Auditory perception  Beat induction 
cians were tested in a click localization paradigm in order Metrical structure  Click localization paradigm 
to investigate how grouping and metrical accents in met- Musical training
rical rhythms influence attention allocation, and to reveal
the effect of musical expertise on such processing. We
performed two experiments in which the participants were Introduction
required to listen to isochronous metrical rhythms con-
taining superimposed clicks and then to localize the click Perception of music, speech, and other complex human
on graphical and ruler-like representations with and with- behaviors require the processing of structured information
out grouping structure information, respectively. Both over time. When listening to musical rhythms, people syn-
experiments revealed metrical and grouping influences on chronize their movements regularly to metrically strong
click localization. Musical expertise improved the preci- beats (Drake et al. 2000b; Snyder and Krumhansl 2001),
sion of click localization, especially when the click coin- despite the complex and irregular temporal patterns of
cided with a metrically strong beat. Critically, although all auditory signals. The ease of identifying and moving with
participants located the click accurately at the beginning of strong beats suggests that people effortlessly extract tem-
an intensity group, only musicians located it precisely poral regularity and predict forthcoming events accordingly.
when it coincided with a strong beat at the end of the Although many studies have demonstrated that this ability
group. Removal of the visual cue of grouping structures relies on the perception of a beat organization called met-
enhanced these effects in musicians and reduced them in rical structure (Parncutt 1994; Snyder and Krumhansl 2001;
non-musicians. These results indicate that musical Large and Palmer 2002), and probably relates to the brain
activity in prefrontal, premotor, auditory association areas,
and basal ganglia (Grahn and Brett 2007; Chen et al. 2008a,
S.-J. Kung  O. J. L. Tzeng  D. L. Hung b; Grahn and Rowe 2009), the mechanism that underlies the
Institute of Neuroscience, National Yang-Ming University, construction of metrical structure is still under debate.
Taipei, Taiwan Metrical structure is a hierarchical organization of
multiple levels of temporal regularity. It results in the
O. J. L. Tzeng
Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan perception of periodically alternating strong (accented) and
weak (unaccented) beats. Rhythms that induce metrical
D. L. Hung  D. H. Wu (&) structure (i.e., metrical rhythms) are easier to remember
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, National Central University,
and reproduce (Essens and Povel 1985). Unexpected
No, 300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli City, Taoyuan County 32001,
Taiwan (R.O.C.) changes in pitch (Jones et al. 1982, 2006) and time (Large
e-mail: denisewu@cc.ncu.edu.tw and Jones 1999) are also easier to detect when appearing in

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270 Exp Brain Res (2011) 210:269–282

metrical rhythms as compared to those in non-metrical mechanism of attention control (Snyder and Large 2005;
rhythms. The most salient temporal beats perceived in a Fujioka et al. 2009). These findings provide further evi-
metrical rhythm are referred to as strong beats (Cooper and dence for the claim that metrically accented tones direct
Meyer 1960; Lerdahl and Jackendoff 1983; Handel 1989). attention dynamically.
The saliency of strong beats is influenced by various In addition to the abstract knowledge, perceptual
acoustic cues, such as intensity, duration, and pitch, which mechanisms may also contribute to the construction of
create accents (Povel and Essens 1985; Parncutt 1994; metrical structure. Similar to visual perception, rhythmic
Snyder 2000; Hannon et al. 2004). In addition to being grouping structure in auditory perception follows the
induced by physical auditory cues, accents can also be principles of similarity and proximity of the Gestalt theory.
induced subjectively. Western tonal music has temporally Consecutive tones that are close in time or share certain
periodic meters. For instance, in a march and waltz, a physical characteristics (e.g., loudness) tend to be grouped
strong beat occurs at every two and three beats, respec- together and separated from other tones without the same
tively. Listeners tend to impose subjective accents on tones features (Bregman 1990; Deutsch 1999). For example, in a
that occur simultaneously with strong beats (Parncutt group of physically identical tones, the relatively isolated
1994). These subjective accents are hence defined as tones, the second tone in a two-tone group, and the
metrical accents (Lerdahl and Jackendoff 1983). Although beginning and ending tones of a multi-tone group are
empirical studies have supported the psychological reality accented (Povel and Okkerman 1981). It has been dem-
of metrical structure (e.g., Palmer and Krumhansl 1990), onstrated that sequences that contain grouping accents with
the cognitive process that contributes to such temporal temporal periodicity exhibit metrical structure as well
periodicity in metrical rhythms remains unknown. Some (Essens and Povel 1985; Povel and Essens 1985; Essens
musical theories propose that metrical structure is built on 1986, 1995). The current study investigates whether the
abstract knowledge of the temporal periodicity embedded periodicity elicited by grouping accents contributes inde-
in Western tonal music (Benjamin 1984), while other pendently from the periodicity elicited by metrical accents,
theories suggest that metrical structure is emerged from the which are tones coinciding with strong beats, and whether
periodicity of perceived accents (Berry 1976; Lerdahl and musical expertise modulates these contributions.
Jackendoff 1983; Povel and Essens 1985). In contrast to the many empirical studies that have
A growing number of studies have demonstrated that investigated the effect of metrical and grouping structures
metrical structure drastically influences listeners’ attention in rhythmic processes, a few attempts explore the percep-
(Jones and Boltz 1989; Large and Jones 1999; Large 2001; tual effects of metrical and grouping accents in metrical
London 2004). The amount of attention to a specific event rhythms. Repp (2005) asked musicians to tap to metrical
is in accordance with the strength of inferred metrical rhythms at different tempi and examined their tapping
structure (Large and Palmer 2002). It is well known that synchronization performance. Musicians found it easier to
the allocation of extra resources to particular spatial posi- tap to tones that carried a grouping accent; however, tap-
tions and particular objects enhances the processing of ping on tones that carried a metrical accent did not make
selectively attended locations and attributes, respectively the task easier. Interestingly, metrical accents facilitated
(for a review, see Yantis and Serences 2003). Similarly, tapping synchronization when musicians tapped to isoch-
empirical evidence from the temporal domain indicates that ronous rhythms where metrical accents were self-induced
the regularity and predictability of the occurrence of strong by musical notations (Repp 2007). These findings seem to
beats in metrical rhythms directs attention to these accented imply separable contributions in grouping and metrical
events in a periodic manner and enhances the perception of accents. However, these studies only employed the tapping
these events (Jones 1987; Jones et al. 2002). Consequently, task, which might likely stimulate the vestibular system
acoustic events that appear on strong beats generate more and result in the induction of the sense of metrical accents
accurate responses than those on weak beats (Large and (Phillips-Silver and Trainor 2005, 2007; Repp 2005).
Palmer 2002). For example, detection of changes in met- Whether these results would be revealed in a task that does
rical rhythms is more accurate when the target coincides not direct participants’ attention to meter is still an open
with a strong beat rather than a weak beat (Jones and question. Moreover, it is uncertain that musicians’ inten-
Ralston 1991; Repp 2010). Recent neurophysiological sive practicing and playing of musical pieces sharpens their
studies also demonstrate that metrically accented tones perceptual sensitivity to meter (Jones et al. 1995; Jones and
elicited stronger early auditory evoked responses than non- Pfordresher 1997) or enhances their accuracy of perform-
accented tones (Vuust et al. 2005; Abecasis et al. 2009; ing the tapping task manually (Sakai et al. 2004).
Geiser et al. 2009; Potter et al. 2009; Vuust et al. 2009). Repp (2010) recently examined the perceptual effect on
Additionally, studies have reported that accented tones metrical accents. Musicians were found to detect the
are associated with gamma-band activity related to the change of a tone in loudness and duration more accurately

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Exp Brain Res (2011) 210:269–282 271

when the tone was metrically accented. According to the 1980; Stoffer 1985). The click displacement, therefore,
hypothesis of dynamic attention allocation (Jones 1976; provides information about underlying subjective group-
Jones and Boltz 1989; Large and Palmer 2002), this might ings of events in a rhythmic sequence.
be caused merely by the increased attention to metrically According to the proposal that attention to different
strong beats or by the ‘‘illusory phenomenal accents’’ (i.e., events in a sequence is directed by the metrical structure
subjectively strengthened loudness resulting from (Large and Palmer 2002), we reason that the accuracy of
increased attention to metrically strong beats). However, click localization would reflect the amount of attention
because the enhancement of the sensitivity to physical allocated to different events in time. If listeners allocate
changes was found regardless of increase or decrease in the attention based on the temporal regularity from pre-exist-
loudness and the duration of the tone, it seems that the ing knowledge, we expect to observe the effect from
enhancement of attention results in the increment of sen- metrical accents by comparing the accuracy of click
sitivity rather than producing phenomenal accents in lis- localization coinciding with strong and weak beats at the
teners’ minds. Repp employed isochronous materials that same positions within a group. That is, we expect to
contained pitch-related accents but not rhythmic grouping observe performances that are more accurate when a click
accents. Therefore, the relation between metrical and coincides with metrically strong than with weak beats.
grouping accents remains unclear. In addition, these studies Furthermore, we predict that the difference should be more
only evaluated musicians. It is well known that musicians salient in musicians than in non-musicians. On the other
are more accurate than non-musicians are with regard to hand, if listeners allocate attention according to the regu-
synchronization (Kincaid et al. 2002) and reproduction of larity from grouping structure, we expect to observe the
metrical (Smith 1983; Franek et al. 1991; Drake and Pal- effect from grouping accents by comparing the accuracy of
mer 1993) and non-metrical rhythms (Watanabe et al. click localization coinciding with the beats with the same
2007). Furthermore, no studies have explored whether metrical accentuation but at various positions in a per-
musical training modulates the effect and interaction of ceptual group. Specifically, we expect to observe improved
metrical and grouping accents. accuracy when the click coincides with the beginning and/
Following the assumption of dynamic attention alloca- or the ending tone of a perceptual group. Furthermore, if
tion (Jones 1976; Jones and Boltz 1989; Large and Palmer the advantage enjoyed by musicians is only from their
2002), one may predict that enhanced attention improves superior metrical representation/knowledge, their sensitiv-
the sensitivity to specific time points and results in precise ity to perceptual grouping should not differ from non-
detection of expected events occurring at these time points musicians. In addition, if the two kinds of accents are
(Yee et al. 1994; Jones and Yee 1997). Therefore, this interactive or if either of them interacts with musical
study employs the click localization paradigm to evaluate training, we expect to observe corresponding interactions
temporal sensitivity on metrical and grouping accents and from the accuracy of click localization. On the contrary, if
to reveal the contributions of the two types of accents in listeners do not allocate attention toward any temporal
metrical rhythms. Ladefoged and Broadbent (1960) intro- regularity, we expect to observe null effects from either
duced the click localization paradigm to investigate per- metrical or grouping accents.
ceptual units in speech. In the original study, participants
were required to report the location of a temporally
unpredictable click while listening to a spoken sentence. Experiment 1
Studies using this paradigm showed that people tend to
locate the click toward the nearest major boundaries of Experiment 1 investigates how people extract temporal
subjective groups based on pre-existing syntactic knowl- regularity in metrical rhythms by manipulating metrical
edge. The performance is significantly better when the and grouping accents independently in a click localization
click is located at major boundaries of subjective groups paradigm. Furthermore, we recruited both musicians and
than when it is located within the groups (Ladefoged and non-musicians as participants to explore how musical
Broadbent 1960; Fodor and Bever 1965). In other words, training modulates temporal periodicity extraction.
the localization of the click reflects the structure of sub-
jective grouping rather than disrupting it. Similar results Method
have also been observed with musical materials: clicks are
more likely to be located toward the nearest boundaries of Participants
subjective groups based on the knowledge of musical
phrasing (Sloboda and Gregory 1980) and the grouping Twenty musicians (mean age 21.25, range 19–25) and 20
features of the stimuli, such as temporal pulses and con- non-musicians (mean age 22.15, range 18–27) participated
tinuation of scores (Gregory 1978; Sloboda and Gregory in this experiment and received a small payment or course

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272 Exp Brain Res (2011) 210:269–282

credit as compensation. All participants had received reg- loud tones). Hence, each rhythm was composed of 16
ular musical education in elementary and high school isochronous tones occurring at an inter-onset-interval of
(about 1 h per week), which included singing melodies to a 200 ms with two levels of loudness (see Sect. ‘‘Appendix’’
piano accompaniment and acquiring elementary knowl- for all the materials).
edge of Western musical harmony, rhythm, and general Therefore, the critical 3-tone group was composed of
principles of musical notation. In addition to the minimal three consecutive loud tones between the 7th and 11th
musical training from school, all musicians had at least beats with identical physical properties. Thus, these mate-
10 years of professional music training (mean 13.55, range rials minimized the external physical markers of both
10–21) and played a musical instrument for at least 1 h per group and metrical accents and were suitable to test the
day within the training period. Categories of instruments perceptual effects of grouping and metrical accents without
played included strings and piano. Non-musicians had being contaminated by physical saliency. The interval
three or fewer years of musical training, and none of the between Beats 1, 5, 9, and 13 was 800 ms, close to the
non-musicians had received training within the past preferred tempo of strong beats (Fraisse 1982; Parncutt
5 years. Both musicians and non-musicians were randomly 1994). The total duration of each rhythm was 3 s, which
assigned in equal numbers to two presentation orders of the was within the estimated range of the 2–5 s for auditory
experimental stimuli. All participants self-reported normal sensory memory and of rhythmic patterns typically found
hearing and were tested alone. in music (Krumhansl 2000). Each of the three versions of
the five rhythms was repeated 20 times in the experiment,
Stimuli and conditions resulting in 300 trials.

Five metrical rhythms consisting of physically identical Design


tones were adopted from rhythms that were demonstrated to
be able to induce metrical structure in Povel and Essens A click was superimposed at various positions across the
(1985). All the rhythms were embedded in a 16-beat tem- sequences. In 80% of the trials (i.e., 240 trials), the click
plate and always started on the beat. To investigate the appeared simultaneously with one of the 7th to 11th tones
effect of grouping and metrical accents on accuracy of click and occurred equally often at the beginning (B), middle
localization independently, metrical beat strength (Strong,
S; Weak, W) and grouping positions (Beginning, B; Middle,
M; End, E) were manipulated to determine the construction
of the stimuli. To reduce the physical markers of accents,
there was no physical alternation of the accented tones.
A quadruple meter was induced in all the rhythms by
having tones at the 1st, 5th, 9th, and 13th beats. In addition
to the consistency of meter throughout the experiment,
practice trials before the experimental session were also
constructed in quadruple meter to help listeners emerge the
sense of meter in the experimental trials. We further
modified each rhythm to create three sequences with
variations only between the 7th and 11th beats. Figure 1a–c
shows the three sequences created from one of the five
rhythms. Each sequence contained a critical 3-tone group
between the 7th and 11th beats such that the strong beat (S,
Fig. 1 Representative examples of the stimuli and the experimental
the 9th beat, receiving a metrical accent) fell on the
design. a–c Three quadruple meter sequences contain a 3-tone group
beginning (B, receiving a grouping accent), middle (M), or (indicated by the dotted rectangle) between the 7th and the 11th beat
end (E, receiving a grouping accent) of the group. Corre- (indicated by the gray rectangle). Long and short bars represent loud
spondingly, the weak beats (W, the 8th and 10th beats) and soft tones, respectively. See text for details about the manipu-
lations of metrical and grouping accents. d The loudness pattern of
were also located in the B, M, or E position of the group.
the acoustic sequence in Fig. 1c, as depicted in the booklet for
To reduce the possible physical confusion that the effect of participants to mark their responses in Experiment 1. The big and
grouping accents might cause in the longer processing small note-heads indicate loud and soft tones, respectively. The 32
intervals before and after a group (Povel and Okkerman dots below the staff notation represent the possible locations of the
click. e The ruler-like diagram representing the isochronous
1981; Povel and Essens 1985), the beats between the tones
sequences without showing the acoustic pattern as depicted in the
in each sequence were filled with softer but otherwise booklet in Experiment 2. B beginning; E end; M middle; S strong
identical tones (with 30% of the sound pressure level of the beat; W weak beat

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Exp Brain Res (2011) 210:269–282 273

(M), and ending (E) positions of a perceptual group. In the keyboard in front of them to initiate the next sequence. The
remaining 60 filler trials, the click occurred before the 7th inter-trial interval was controlled by participants.
tone or after the 11th tone. The click coincided with a tone Participants received 10 practice trials without feedback
in half of these filler trials, whereas the click occurred before the experimental session; the procedures of the
between tones (i.e., 100 ms after/before a tone) in the other practice trials were identical to those in the experimental
half of the filler trials. All 300 rhythmic sequences were trials. Rhythmic patterns in the practice trials were chosen
displayed in one of two presentation orders. Within each from the 15 patterns employed in the experimental session
order, all the trials were pseudo-randomly presented with with a superimposed click. At the end of the experiment,
the following constraints: (a) no consecutive rhythms had each participant filled out a short questionnaire reporting
the same rhythmic pattern or the same click position, (b) no their musical background (musical training and prefer-
three consecutive rhythms had clicks with the same ences), their impression of the task, any strategy they
grouping/metrical accentuation, and (c) every five con- adopted, and subjective evaluation of their own perfor-
secutive rhythms contained one or two filler trials. mance on the task. The experiment lasted about 1.5 h.

Apparatus Analysis

The tones appearing in the sequences were 262 Hz sinu- We measured the accuracy of click localization in each
soids with 50-ms duration (10-ms rise time and 40-ms condition and used it as the dependent variable to deter-
steady-state duration). The superimposed click was 2 kHz mine the effect of grouping and metrical accents in met-
sinusoids with 5-ms duration. We constructed all the rical rhythms when the click coincided with either type of
sounds using Steinberg WaveLab v4.0 (Steinberg Media accent or with both. We regarded the localization as correct
Technologies GmbH) with a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. only when participants circled the dot corresponding to the
The intensity of the loud tone and the click were approx- exact location of the click in the sequence, which resulted
imately 75 dB (SPL), and it was around 60 dB for the soft in a 3.1% probability of guessing the correct response. We
tones. Participants could adjust the overall loudness if they refer to the guessing probability as the un-weighted chance
wished. The sounds were delivered through NUKE Series level below. Even if participants were aware of the uneven
EM982 speakers (OZAKI International Corp.) located distribution of the click position within a rhythmic
about 1 m from the participant in a sound-attenuating sequence, the probability of guessing a correct response
room. The experimental procedures were controlled by increased to only 11.9%.1 The guessing probability when
PresentationÒ v.7 (Neurobehavioral Systems, Inc.) running participants were aware of such uneven distribution is
on a desktop computer (2.83 GHz, Intel Pentium 4, Win- referred to as the weighted chance level.
dows XP). All the data excluding those from the filler trials and the
trials where the click coincided with the 7th and the 11th
Procedure tones were submitted to further analyses. The mean accu-
racy of click localization in the remaining 144 trials (i.e.,
A trial consisted of the presentation of one of the 15 the trials with the click coinciding with loud tones from the
rhythmic patterns (i.e., 16 tones) with a superimposed 8th to the 10th beats within the critical 3-tone group) from
click. Each participant received a booklet containing a each participant was submitted to a repeated-measures
copy of the 300 rhythmic sequences that they would analysis of variance (ANOVA). In a 2 9 3 9 2 mixed
encounter in staff notation, in which big and small note- factorial design, the two levels of metrical accentuation (S,
heads represented loud and soft tones, respectively W) and three levels of grouping position (B, M, E) formed
(Fig. 1d). Participants listened to the rhythm once and the two within-subject variables, and the two levels of
followed along the corresponding sequence in the booklet. musical expertise (musicians, non-musicians) were used as
We instructed participants to listen to the rhythm carefully the between-subject variable.
and to mark the position of the click in the booklet as soon
as they heard it. Participants were informed that there was 1
The weighted guessing probability is calculated by considering the
always one and only one click in each sequence and that
uneven distribution of the click position within the rhythmic
the click could occur either simultaneously with the onset sequence. Specifically, the click coincided with the 7th, 8th, 9th,
of one of the 16 tones or halfway between any two con- 10th, and 11th tones in 80% of the trials, while it appeared in the other
secutive tones. They were required to indicate their 22 positions (i.e., from the 1st to the 6th tone, from the 12th to the
16th tone, and the midpoints between any two tones in these ranges)
responses by circling one of the 32 dots printed below the
in 20% of the trials. Therefore, the chance level of guessing a correct
staff notation of each sequence. After marking the position response when taking such distribution probability into account would
of the click, participants pressed the space bar on the be 11.9% (i.e., 1/(5 9 80% ? 22 9 20%) = 11.9%).

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274 Exp Brain Res (2011) 210:269–282

Fig. 2 The accuracy of click


localization in Experiment 1 (a,
b) and Experiment 2 (c,
d) divided by strong and weak
beats (as indicated by solid and
broken lines, respectively) and
by different positions in a
perceptual group (B: beginning,
M: middle, E: end) in non-
musicians (NMu) and musicians
(Mu). Data are reported as
means, ±SE

Results indicating that musical training influenced the effect of


metrical accentuation in accuracy of click localization
The following two observations ensured that most partici- (Fig. 2a–b). The interaction between metrical and grouping
pants were capable of performing the task: (a) the overall accents was also significant [F(2, 76) = 3.93, P \ .05,
mean accuracy (31.44%, range 11.67–60%) was signifi- g2P = .09], suggesting that the effects of these two types of
cantly higher than the un-weighted chance level (i.e., 3.1%; accents on click localization were interactive rather than
ts(19) [ 3.12, Ps \ .006)2 and (b) the click was located additive.
five or more tones away from the exact position in only less To further evaluate whether musical training modulated
than 3% of all trials. the effects of metrical and grouping accents in the accu-
As predicted, musicians identified the click position racy of click localization, the data from musicians and
more accurately than non-musicians did [F(1, 38) = 5.98, non-musicians were analyzed separately. Non-musicians
P \ .05, g2P = .14]. A click coinciding with a strong beat located the click more accurately when it coincided with a
was localized more accurately than that coinciding with a strong beat rather than a weak beat [F(1, 19) = 4.44,
weak beat [F(1, 38) = 38.31, P \ .001, g2P = .50]. The P \ .05, g2P = .19] (Fig. 2a). Their performance was also
accuracy of click localization among the three positions affected by grouping accents [F(2, 38) = 13.95, P \ .001,
within a perceptual group was also significantly different g2P = .42]: relatively accurate localization at the begin-
[F(2, 76) = 31.85, P \ .001, g2P = .46]. Critically, the ning of a group was demonstrated [Tukey’s honestly
interaction between strong/weak beats and musical training significant difference (HSD) test: B vs. M, P = .001; M
was significant [F(1, 38) = 18.70, P \ .001, g2P = .33], vs. E, P [ .77; B vs. E, P = .08)]. The interaction
between metrical and grouping accents was not significant
2 in non-musicians [F(2, 38) \ 1].
In Experiment 1, the accuracy of all conditions was significantly
higher than the chance level of 3.1% in both musicians and non- In musicians, the effect of metrical accentuation was
musicians. When considering the awareness of the uneven distribu- very robust [F(1, 19) = 34.37, P \ .001, g2P = .64]
tion of the click position, all conditions were significantly above the (Fig. 2b). Musicians performed better than non-musicians
guessing probability of 11.9% in musicians (ts(19) [ 2.58,
only when the click coincided with strong beats [F(1,
Ps \ .018), except when the click coinciding with a weak beat was
located in the middle of a group (t(19) = 2.01, P = .059). For non- 38) = 13.54, P = .001, g2P = .26]. However, this was
musicians, however, among the total six conditions where four of not the case when the click coincided with weak beats
them were accented, three accented conditions were significantly [F(1, 38) \ 1], suggesting that musicians were more
above the weighted guessing probability: SB condition (i.e., the click
effective at selectively allocating attention in synchrony
coinciding with a strong beat was localized in the beginning of the
3-tone group; t(19) = 4.33, P \ .001), SE condition (t(19) = 2.82, with metrically strong beats. According to the ANOVA for
P = .011), and WB condition (t(19) = 4.14, P = .001). the musicians, the influence of grouping accentuation was

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Exp Brain Res (2011) 210:269–282 275

also significant [F(2, 38) = 18.76, P \ .001, g2P = .50]. regularity induced by grouping accents was dependent on
Critically, the interaction between grouping and metrical or was facilitated by the rhythmic pattern demonstrated on
accents was significant as well [F(2, 38) = 3.33, P \ .05, the staff. The rhythmic pattern on the staff notation clearly
g2P = .15]. When the click coincided with strong beats, the indicated the grouping structure, while it did not visually
localization accuracy was the highest at the beginning and indicate the metrical structure. Therefore, both musicians
end of a group and the lowest at the middle (Tukey’s HSD and non-musicians may have adopted grouping structure
test: B vs. M, P \ .001; M vs. E, P \ .05; B vs. E, from vision, but only musicians captured additional met-
P [ .20). When the click coincided with weak beats, rical structure from audition.
however, the localization accuracy was only higher at the We conducted Experiment 2 to directly control for these
beginning of a group, while no difference was detected potential confounds by replacing the response format of the
between the middle and end positions (B vs. M, P = .01; staff notation with a ruler-like representation. By not pro-
M vs. E, P [ .84; B vs. E, P \ .05). These results suggest viding a context that is more familiar to one group or another,
that both grouping and metrical accents influence musi- we could unambiguously evaluate the effect of musical
cians’ temporal judgments and that these two factors expertise in extracting grouping and metrical accents.
interact with each other.

Discussion Experiment 2

The main goal of Experiment 1 was to evaluate how Experiment 2 addresses two possible confounds from
grouping and metrical accents interact in the perception Experiment 1, namely, the visual cues of the grouping
of metrical rhythms by musicians and non-musicians. The structure of metrical sequences and musicians’ superior
effect of both types of accents was assessed by the accuracy familiarity with the staff notation. Participants localized the
of click localization. The results indicated that both grouping click on a ruler-like diagram representing the isochronous
and metrical accents affected participants’ perception of sequence of each trial. If visual patterns of grouping struc-
acoustic events, suggesting that listeners allocated attention ture facilitated the performance of click localization in
dynamically in accordance with the temporal regularity Experiment 1, we expected to observe reduced a grouping
emerged from the abstract knowledge of meter and from the effect in the current experiment. In addition, if the perfor-
perceived grouping accents. Specifically, participants iden- mance of musicians and non-musicians in Experiment 1 was
tified the click position precisely when it coincided with a modulated by their familiarity with the staff notation, we
metrically strong beat or with a beginning tone of a per- expected to observe worse performance by musicians and
ceptual group. These findings suggest that musical training better performance by non-musicians in Experiment 2. If the
enables effective detection of temporal regularity and effi- visual information provided by the staff notation only played
cient construction of metrical structure, which results in a minor role, however, we expected to observe similar per-
musicians performing better on strong beats than non- formance patterns in Experiment 2 to those of Experiment 1.
musicians do.
Although musicians’ superior performance in temporal Method
judgment was attributed to their musical expertise and was
consistent with previous findings, some may argue that Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1 in methodol-
such an effect might be caused, at least partially, by the ogy, except for the modifications indicated below.
task requirement of performing click localization on the
staff notation. Because musicians were familiar with Participants
the form and the symbols on the staff, which could
potentially serve as a visual cue for the rhythmic sequence, Twenty musicians (mean age 21.10, range 18–26) and 20
they may have benefited from making temporal judgments non-musicians (mean age 21.20, range 19–25) participated
on the notation. On the other hand, non-musicians were not in this experiment and received a small payment or course
as familiar with the staff notation, and it may have been credit as compensation. The criteria for selection of
intimidating to them. musicians and non-musicians remained the same as those
One could argue that the staff notation in the answer in Experiment 1. Musicians had practiced at least one
booklet unintentionally provided information to selectively musical instrument for more than 10 years (mean 14.3,
increase participants’ sensitivity to grouping accents but range 10–20). Categories of instruments played included
not to metrical accents. We did observe that both musicians strings, percussion, and piano. None of the participants in
and non-musicians were sensitive to grouping accents. Experiment 2 took part in Experiment 1. All participants
However, it is possible that the perception of temporal self-reported normal hearing and were tested alone.

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Design away from the exact position in less than 3% of all trials.
These results confirmed that participants were able to follow
The design was identical to that in Experiment 1 with one the instruction to perform the task.
exception: instead of using two presentation orders as in Similar to the results of Experiment 1, musicians
Experiment 1, the presentation orders of trials in different identified the click position more accurately than non-
conditions were pseudo-randomly determined and varied musicians [F(1, 38) = 90.23, P \ .001, g2P = .70]
across participants. The same trial-to-trial constraints (Fig. 2c, d). A click coinciding with a strong beat was
employed in Experiment 1 still applied. localized more accurately than a click coinciding with a
weak beat [F(1, 38) = 44.87, P \ .001, g2P = .54]. The
Procedure response accuracy among the three positions within a
perceptual group was also significant [F(2, 76) = 19.98,
The procedure was identical to that used in Experiment 1, P \ .001, g2P = .35]. The remarkable interactions between
with the following exceptions: (a) each participant received strong/weak beats and musical training [F(1, 38) = 40.23,
a booklet containing 300 ruler-like diagrams, representing P \ .001, g2P = .51] and between metrical and grouping
the isochronous sequences that they would encounter accents [F(2, 76) = 11.72, P \ .001, g2P = .24] suggested
(Fig. 1e), (b) participants were allowed to make marks on that metrical accentuation has different influences in
the booklet as long as they could accurately report the musicians and non-musicians and that the effects of these
perceived location of the click, and (c) to help the partic- two types of accents on click localization are interactive.
ipants understand the procedure and correctly localize the Interestingly, the interaction between grouping accents and
click on the ruler-like diagrams, which provided no clue for musical training was also significant [F(2, 76) = 7.71,
the rhythmic pattern, participants received 15 practice trials P = .001, g2P = .17], indicating that the extraction of
before the experimental session without feedback. temporal regularity from grouping accents was modulated
by musical experience as well. More importantly, the
Analysis three-way interaction among metrical accent, grouping
accent, and musical training was also significant [F(2,
The responses of click localization were analyzed in a 76) = 3.53, P \ .05, g2P = .09], suggesting that the
similar fashion as in Experiment 1. In addition, direct interaction between the two accentuations was further
comparisons between the results of Experiment 1 and 2 in affected by musical experience.
musicians and in non-musicians were conducted separately To determine whether musical training influenced the
to further examine whether the visual cue of grouping effects of metrical and grouping accents in click locali-
structure affected the accuracy of click localization of these zation accuracy, we analyzed the data from musicians and
two groups of participants in different manners. In two non-musicians separately. Different from the results of
2 9 3 9 2 mixed factorial ANOVAs, two levels of met- Experiment 1, non-musicians showed null effect of met-
rical accentuation (S, W) and three levels of grouping rical accents [F(1, 19) \ 1] (Fig. 2c), though the effect of
position (B, M, E) formed the two within-subject variables, grouping accents was still significant [F(2, 38) = 5.32,
and two experiment levels (Exp1, Exp2) as the between- P = .009, g2P = .22]. Click localization was the most
subject variable. accurate at the beginning of a group (Beginning: M = .20,
SE = .03; Middle: M = .15, SE = .02; Ending: M = .14,
Results SE = .02), but the accuracy difference among within
group locations was not robust enough to reach signifi-
The overall mean accuracy (35.04%, range 12–85.66%) was cance in the Tukey’s HSD test (Ps [ .19). Similar to
higher than the un-weighted chance level (ts(19) [ 3.82, Experiment 1, the interaction between metrical and group
Ps \ .005),3 and the click was located five or more tones accents was not significant in non-musicians [F(2,
38) = 2.05, P [ .14].
The main findings in musicians replicated the results of
Experiment 1. The effect of metrical accents was very
3 robust [F(1, 19) = 48.47, P \ .001, g2P = .72] (Fig. 2d).
In Experiment 2, the accuracy of all conditions surpassed the
chance level of 3.1% in both musicians and non-musicians. In The influence of grouping accentuation was also significant
musicians, the accuracy of all conditions was also above the weighted [F(2, 38) = 17.59, P \ .001, g2P = .48]. Critically, the
guessing probability (ts(19) [ 3.05, Ps \ .008). In non-musicians, interaction between grouping and metrical accents was
however, only the conditions including grouping accents showed the
significant as well [F(2, 38) = 10.83, P \ .001, g2P = .36].
tendency to reach the significant difference from the chance level of
11.9% (SB condition, t(19) = 2.07, P = .052; WB condition: For the click coinciding with strong beats, the localization
t(19) = 2.37, P = .029). accuracy was the highest at the beginning and the end of a

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Exp Brain Res (2011) 210:269–282 277

group and the lowest at the middle (Tukey’s HSD test: B effect in Experiment 1 resulted from the visual information
vs. M, P \ .05; M vs. E, P = .005; B vs. E, P [ .89). For of the staff notation. The two-way interaction between
the click coinciding with weak beats, however, the locali- metrical accents and experimental effects [F(1, 38) = 1.61,
zation accuracy was only higher at the beginning of a P [ .21] and the three-way interaction [F(2, 76) = 1.12,
group, while no difference was detected between the P [ .33] were both insignificant.
middle and end positions (B vs. M, P \ .05; M vs. E,
P = 1; B vs. E, P \ .05). These results confirmed that both Discussion
grouping and metrical accents influence musicians’ tem-
poral judgments and that these two factors interact with The main goal of Experiment 2 was to determine whether
each other. staff notation caused the effect of grouping accents and
The between-experiment analysis of musicians’ perfor- provided an advantage to musicians in Experiment 1. The
mance showed a significant experimental effect. Contrary current findings argue against both speculations and sup-
to the speculation that musicians’ familiarity with the staff port the validity and sensitivity of the click localization
notation resulted in superior temporal judgment, the paradigm. The robust and consistent findings of the effects
accuracy of click localization in Experiment 2 was higher of metrical and grouping accents among musicians in both
than that in Experiment 1 [F(1, 38) = 12.47, P = .001, experiments indicated that music experts extracted tem-
g2P = .25]. In addition, the significant three-way interaction poral regularities from both types of accents through
among metrical accents, grouping accents, and two audition, regardless of whether visual information provided
experiments [F(2, 76) = 4.07, P \ .05, g2P = .10] revealed grouping structure or not. In contrast, non-musicians ben-
that although both experiments showed significantly better efited from visual grouping patterns to detect temporal
performance in strong beats, especially when the click regularity, which guided their attention allocation to the
coincided with the beginning and ending tones of a group predicted accentuations in metrical rhythms, as reflected in
(all Ps \ .01), only Experiment 1 demonstrated a signifi- higher accuracy of click localization of non-musicians in
cant difference between the beginning (M = .71, SE = Experiment 1.
.05) and ending positions (M = .58, SE = .06; P \ .05). Consistent with previous research, these results dem-
That is, in Experiment 2 when the click coincided with onstrate that musical training enables effective detection of
strong beats, musicians’ accuracy of the ending position temporal regularity and efficient construction of metrical
increased and resulted in no difference in performance structure. In addition, visual cues of grouping structure
between the beginning (M = .81, SE = .04) and ending might also enhance the abilities of non-musicians to detect
(M = .84, SE = .03) tones for a perceptual group. These and organize metrical structure when they listen to an
results indicated that the accentuation from the end of a auditory rhythm.
group was surprisingly salient in Experiment 2. The
interactions between the two experiments and grouping
accents, and between the two experiments and metrical General discussion
accents were not significant (Ps [ .19).
The analysis of the data from non-musicians also The current study examined the impact of grouping and
revealed the experimental effect. Contrary to the specula- metrical accents on the accuracy of click localization in
tion that the inferior temporal judgment in Experiment 1 musicians and non-musicians when the grouping structure
resulted from unfamiliarity with the staff notation, non- was visually presented (Experiment 1) or not (Experiment
musicians’ accuracy of click localization in Experiment 2 2). We assumed that the accuracy of click localization
was lower than that in Experiment 1 [F(1, 38) = 4.53, reflects the attentional resources allocated to particular
P \ .05, g2P = .11]. That is, the visual cue of grouping points in time (Large and Jones 1999). The results from the
structure seemed to assist non-musicians in extracting two experiments indicate that attention is dynamically
temporal regularity embedded in the rhythm. Furthermore, allocated to different time points in metrical rhythms.
the significant interaction between grouping and experi- Specifically, metrical structure is constructed by inferred
mental effects [F(2, 76) = 6.34, P = .003, g2P = .14] temporal regularities from both pre-existing knowledge
demonstrated that non-musicians performed more accu- and grouping structure, and the two mechanisms are dis-
rately when the click coincided with the beginning of a tinct but interactive. Moreover, musical training modulates
perceptual group than when it coincided with other posi- both processes of perceiving metrical and grouping
tions in Experiment 1 (Tukey’s HSD test: B vs. M and B accents.
vs. E, Ps \ .01), but not in Experiment 2. These results, Consistent with previous studies in showing that metri-
again, support the reasoning that non-musicians’ grouping cal representation is strongly influenced by musical

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training (Palmer and Krumhansl 1990; Drake et al. 2000a; Similarly, in isochronous sequences with no temporal
Geiser et al. 2010), musical expertise improves musicians’ variations, melodic accents function as time markers to
performance by enhancing their temporal sensitivity to help listeners perceive the implied meter (Hannon et al.
both metrically strong and weak beats. Such results suggest 2004).
that long-term training enables listeners to detect temporal To evaluate the perceptual influence of grouping and
regularity effectively and to construct metrical structure metrical accents in metrical rhythms, we minimized
efficiently. These findings also support the hypothesis the possible physical markers of grouping and metrical
proposed by Snyder and Krumhansl (2001), indicating that accents. It has been argued that the effect of rhythmic
musicians and non-musicians may possess different per- grouping accents in the sequences of physically identical
ceptual abilities for extracting temporal periodicity. In the tones results from the longer processing intervals before
current study, because the invariant quadruple meter can be and after a perceptual group (Povel and Okkerman 1981;
inferred from all sequences, it is possible that intensive Povel and Essens 1985). In this study, however, we
musical training improves musicians’ ability to sustain the reduced the effect of accentuation resulting from a varia-
detected metrical structure and apply it to the subsequent tion in duration by filling in soft tones to equate the
rhythm. intervals between tones at the boundary and within a group.
Non-musicians’ perception of acoustic events is clearly In other words, the grouping accents in the current study
affected by metrical accents, especially when grouping might not have been perceived as saliently as the rhythmic
structures were visually presented in Experiment 1. grouping accents in previous studies. However, the present
Interestingly, this effect disappeared when we removed the grouping accents still affected click localization: the per-
visual indication of grouping structures in Experiment 2. formance was more precise at the beginning of a perceptual
That is, when there was no visual information of grouping group than at other positions, regardless of metrical
structures, the effect of metrical accent vanished. There- accentuation, in both musicians and non-musicians. These
fore, these results might support the idea that one can infer findings provide support for the contribution of grouping
metrical structure from grouping structures (Essens and accents to the extraction of metrical structure (Povel and
Povel 1985; Povel and Essens 1985; Essens 1986, 1995). Essens 1985).
The results from non-musicians, however, seem to be One may argue that the intensity change at the bound-
contradictory to people’s ease in synchronizing move- aries of a perceptual group might function as a grouping
ments to the strong beats of metrical structure in rhythmic accent, and the effect of grouping accents probably stem-
sequences and music (Drake et al. 2000a; Snyder and med from the physical shift from a soft to a loud tone.
Krumhansl 2001). They also seem to be inconsistent with Although we cannot completely exclude the possibility,
the findings that adults and infants use rhythmic grouping this argument is not entirely consistent with the current
accents to perceive meter (Hannon et al. 2004; Hannon results. If the speculation were true, one may predict that
and Johnson 2005). If extracting metrical structure is one the effect of grouping accents would be similar in both
of the basic skills that even untrained people possess, non- Experiments 1 and 2 because they employed the same
musicians should be able to demonstrate the effect of auditory materials. Although the performance of musicians
metrical accents even when the grouping structure is not did reveal similar effects of grouping accents between the
presented visually. The inconsistent performance of non- two experiments, non-musicians demonstrated a significant
musicians may have resulted from the lack of prominent grouping effect in Experiment 1 only. Such findings sug-
physical markers of grouping and metrical accents in the gest that grouping accents can be induced by other per-
materials. ceptual mechanisms as well as the temporal distance and
Real music contains many salient physical changes, physical shifts between acoustic events (Cooper and Meyer
such as intensity, duration, pitch, as well as temporal 1960; Handel 1989).
variations. All of these variations may function as time In addition to the lack of physical markers in the
markers and help non-musicians extract temporal regu- materials, the relatively irregular periodicity inferred from
larity and consequently construct metrical structure (Ellis grouping accents may be another potential reason for the
and Jones 2009). Indeed, it has been demonstrated that in poor performance by non-musicians. Metrical accents
temporal- and pitch-varied sequences, rhythmic grouping induced robust temporal regularity, namely, a metrical
accents, tempo, and melodic accents are salient markers accent was inferred every 800 ms (4 beats). In contrast,
for perception of meter (Hannon et al. 2004). In tem- the regularity of grouping accents varied from 400 ms to
porally varied sequences of monotones, even infants 800 ms; hence, it was less regular than metrical accents.
could discriminate metrical differences by perceived The relative irregularity may increase the task difficulty
rhythmic grouping accents (Hannon and Johnson 2005). for non-musicians to extract temporal regularity from

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Exp Brain Res (2011) 210:269–282 279

grouping accents only, especially when no grouping pat- studies (e.g., Repp 2005, 2007), click localization might be
tern was visually cued. On the other hand, with top–down regarded as a task that is more familiar to musicians than to
knowledge of metrical representation, musicians were able non-musicians. Musicians are trained to track scores during
to overcome the irregular pattern and allocate their music reading and performance, while non-musicians are
attention to the metrically strong beats, which conse- relatively unfamiliar with such an activity. Following this
quently increased their temporal sensitivity to grouping reasoning, one might suspect that musicians’ superior
accents. performance in click localization is simply due to their
The poor performance of non-musicians may further familiarity with the task rather than their enhanced atten-
suggest that click localization heavily depends on the tion allocation in metrical structure. Our results in two
temporal sensitivity elicited from dynamic attention allo- experiments, however, demonstrated that the advantage
cation. Non-musicians performed accurately when enjoyed by musicians was not general; it was only
grouping structure was visually cued in Experiment 1; observed when the click coincided with a metrical and/or
however, they did not under the no cue condition in grouping accent. This effect supports our hypothesis that
Experiment 2. It is possible that visual cues provided the accuracy of click localization reflects temporal sensi-
salient time markers for non-musicians to evoke temporal tivity, which is enhanced by allocating additional attention
regularity, and as a result, to allocate their attention in to expected events, even without the involvement of motor
accordance to the regularity, which enhances their tem- skills in musical performance. Such findings therefore
poral sensitivity to the expected event. Furthermore, the suggest that the difference of the localization between
fact that visual cues enhance temporal sensitivity in non- musicians and non-musicians is not caused fully by task-
musicians may suggest that they require more physical related factors, but instead by the temporal regularities
time markers than musicians do to develop temporal induced from grouping and/or metrical structure in rhyth-
regularity and allocate attention accordingly. Following mic sequences.
this reasoning, we suggest that in addition to long-term Although the hypothesis of attention allocation in
training, temporal regularity can be inferred from the metrical structure elegantly elucidates the relationships
immediate context within a sequence to influence atten- between attention and metrical perception, it is possible
tion allocation. That is, if the metrically or group accented that the performance of click localization is also influ-
tones are physically highlighted, even non-musicians enced by mechanisms other than directing attention to
should be able to track the regularity and allocate their different points in time. Although we encouraged partici-
attention accordingly. pants to make their responses as soon as they heard a
The contributions from grouping and metrical accents to click, we cannot fully rule out the possibility that they
perceiving metrical structure are distinct but not indepen- remembered and/or interpreted the click as happening at a
dent. Specifically, both experiments demonstrated that the position that corresponded to other internal representations
performance of click localization coinciding with the of the accented stimuli, such as internal simulation of
ending tone of a perceptual group was enhanced for strong actions, auditory images of accented tones, and perceptual
beats only, especially for musicians. These results suggest enhancement of loudness and/or sensitivity to the accented
that the perceptual enhancement of the temporal accuracy tones (Repp 2007, 2010). Furthermore, it is very likely
at the end of a perceptual group may stem from the solid that musical expertise modulates these mechanisms of
representation of metrical structure and the precise metrical interpretation. Further studies are needed to
expectation of the location of the strong beat. Long-term explore the related issues. In addition, it is difficult to
intensive training facilitates such attentional modulation, separate the effect of the perceptual salience of the click
so musicians are more proficient in allocating attention from that of the tone stimulus, despite the identical sound
according to prespecified metrical structure (Yee et al. level of loud tones and the click. With the clear demon-
1994; Jones and Yee 1997; Drake et al. 2000b). The precise stration of distinct and interactive contributions from both
and additional attention allocation to the strong beat metrical and grouping accents to metrical structure by the
enhances the perceptual salience of the grouping accents current study, future research with online neurophysio-
and may therefore improve the accuracy of click locali- logical measurements might be able to determine the locus
zation. In other words, when listening to a rhythmic of the effect of these accents on participants’ temporal
sequence, both metrical knowledge and superior sensitivity judgments.
to perceptual groups help musicians construct the metrical Recently, Repp (2010) systematically evaluated musi-
structure embedded in acoustic events. cians’ metrical representation in tasks of duration and
In contrast to the tapping task, which seems to be natural intensity detection of isochronous melodies. It was found
for non-musicians and is commonly employed by previous that perceptual sensitivity to a stimulus was enhanced by

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improved attention to a metrically strong beat, rather than


by increased loudness of the accented tone. Interestingly,
the lack of loudness enhancement in metrical accents is
phenomenally different from the observation where
grouping-accented tones are perceived as being louder
than physically identical but unaccented tones (Povel and
Okkerman 1981). The results of different representations
in metrical and grouping accents, as well as the inde-
pendent effects of the two kinds of accents in the current
study, are consistent with the proposal that grouping and
metrical accents involve different processes. The present
study further suggests that increased attention to a met-
rically strong beat enhances perceptual sensitivity to the
temporal (Yee et al. 1994; Jones and Yee 1997) and non-
temporal (e.g., Repp 2010) attributes of an accented
event.
In conclusion, this study demonstrates that both pre-
existing knowledge and grouping structure provide distinct
but interactive influences on the allocation of attention to
different time points in metrical structure. Such internal
organization helps listeners track and compare the con-
structed metrical structure with continuously incoming
acoustic events, and consequently helps them pay attention
to the structure of the rhythm. Processing of metrical and
grouping accents in subsequent streams is in turn modu-
lated by the allocated attention. Critically, one’s amount
of musical training modulates the relative importance of
grouping and metrical accents to the formation of metrical
structure. Musicians not only benefit from rich metrical
knowledge but also demonstrate sharp perceptual sensi-
tivity to acoustic events, implying that the effect of musical
expertise penetrates the mechanisms of perceptual pro-
cessing through periodic and regular allocation of attention
to metrical structure. Such results highlight the interactive
and dynamic nature of attention allocation to metrical
structure.

Acknowledgments We are grateful to Dr. Bruno Repp for his


helpful discussions and comments on earlier versions of the manu-
script. We are also grateful to Dr. Mari Riess Jones and the anony-
mous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments. This
study was supported by grants from Academia Sinica (AS-99-TP-
AC1) and National Science Council (NSC 98-2517-S-004-001-MY3
& NSC 99-2410-H-008-023-MY3) in Taiwan. References

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