Mary Wigman, Martha Graham & Merce Cunningham are key choreographers of the 20th & 21st centuries, whose rhythmic innovations challenge established norms of energy usage in their socio-cultural contexts, enabling their contemporaries to engage differently with dominant economies of energy.

Originally published in 1982, this book provides rich evidence of the relevance of the temporal aspects of behavior. The generalized areas of learning, memory, operant scheduled behavior, task performance, vigilance, mood and motivation and their rhythmic components are explored in varying detail. The particularized measures range from on-the-job errors, through reading efficiency to milliseconds of change in reaction time in the laboratory. The subjects range from ants to older persons. Across this range of settings, subjects, and behaviors, the message is clear: there is an interaction between time and behavior.

In this book, the authors develop a theoretical framework based on a Gestalt approach, viewing rhythmic experience in terms of pattern perception or groupings. Musical examples of increasing complexity are used to provide training in the analysis, performance, and writing of rhythm.

The book contains a collection of papers dealing with the question of how rhythm shapes language. Until now, there was no comprehensive theory that addressed these findings adequately. By bringing together researchers from many different fields, this book will make a first attempt to fill this gap.

I acknowledge a deep debt of gratitude to my coeditors: my wife Irene, and my friend and colleague Tom Draper. They have worked with diligence and insight to bring this work to completion. They have delegated the task of writing the Preface to me. As the scientific study of human development matures it is not only natural, but it is necessary to reach beyond understanding the ways humans develop capacities, to study the ways emerging capacities fit into the larger sphere of human undertakings. Music is one of the most significant of those endeavors. As I attend the several piano competitions that are on my agenda each year, and see children seated at the keyboard drawing forth the magnificent sounds of Bach, Chopin, and Ravel, I am always a little awed. Surely, it seems to me, the piano* is among the best of man's creations; the creative energies of great composers are among mankind's greatest expressions; and encouraging children to associate themselves seriously with both instrument and composer can be one of the great blessings to their young lives and, by association, to the larger society. Music touches the entire range of our lifespan on a daily basis. Involving chil dren with music and music training has high market, and common sense, validity. Parents understand intuitively that children will benefit, and their lives will be enriched, if they are influenced by music and music training.