Control Mechanisms of Perceived Phase Error on Synchronized Tapping Toward Communication Support Systems based on Psychological Timing Control

In recent years, information technology rapidly increases the opportunity of human communication. However, communication supporting systems, such as tele-presence and CSCW, were mainly developed based on physical interaction and not on psychological one. In this article, we analyzed the psychological interaction mechanism of human timing control using synchronization tapping task. Particularly, we focused on the phase error correction, and the following 2 facts were found: 1) perceived timing is not coincident with physical timing; and 2) the perceived timing is controlled by two types of phase error correction mechanisms. One requires attentional resources and the other does not. These results suggest that timing control for human communication support system should be based on his/her perceived timing, and such psychological timing control mechanism is useful for realizing the human-like communication systems