Is there a general motor basis for final lengthening?

Phrase-final lengthening is a proposed speech universal, also found in music performance, and is reported in animal communication, e.g. birdsong. In this paper, we ask whether there is a general motor basis for these behaviors. We recorded the finger movements of five participants as they traced groups of zigzags on paper. Results show that participants reliably signalled groupings by pausing or finger lifting between groups, but did not slow down their group-final movements. Some participants (but not all) showed slower group initial movements. These results suggest that we may need to look elsewhere for an explanation for the temporal prolongation of final movements observed in speech.