How strong is the rhythm of perception? A registered replication of Hickok, Farahbod, and Saberi (2015)

Our ability to predict upcoming events is a fundamental component of human cognition. One way in which we do so is to exploit temporal regularities in sensory signals: the ticking of a clock, falling of footsteps, and the motion of waves each provide a structure that may facilitate anticipation. But how strong is the effect of rhythmic anticipation on perception? And to what degree do people vary in their ability to capitalize on these regularities? Hickok, Farahbod, and Saberi (2015) introduced a behavioral paradigm to assess how a rhythmic auditory stimulus affects perception of subsequent targets. They tested five listeners, and found that perception – that is, target detection accuracy – fluctuated rhythmically just like the sound rhythm. Here we aim to replicate the original finding, to assess how likely the finding is to be observed for any individual, and to quantify effect size in a relatively large sample of listeners. We introduce a model-based approach for analyzing the data that allows separate estimates of amplitude and phase information in target detection responses, and quantifies effect size for individual listeners.