Dynamic frequency change influences loudness perception: A central, analytic process.

Three experiments showed that dynamic frequency change influenced loudness. Listeners heard tones that had concurrent frequency and intensity change and tracked loudness while ignoring pitch. Dynamic frequency change significantly influenced loudness. A control experiment showed that the effect depended on dynamic change and was opposite that predicted by static equal loudness contours. In a 3rd experiment, listeners heard white noise intensity change in one ear and harmonic frequency change in the other and tracked the loudness of the noise while ignoring the harmonic tone. Findings suggest that the dynamic interaction of pitch and loudness occurs centrally in the auditory system; is an analytic process; has evolved to take advantage of naturally occurring covariation of frequency and intensity; and reflects a shortcoming of traditional static models of loudness perception in a dynamic natural setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communicating emotion: The role of prosodic features.

Reviews research on the expression of emotion through the nonverbal (prosodic) features of speech. Findings show that emotions can be expressed prosodically, apparently through a variety of prosodic features. This communication appears to be largely the same for different individuals and cultures, suggesting that the prosodic expression of emotion is not conventional. Some correlations between dimensions of emotions (e.g., anxiety, aggression) and prosodic features are discussed; activity or arousal seems to be signaled by increased pitch height, pitch range, loudness, and rate. The possibility that prosodic contours (patterns of pitch and loudness over time) are used to communicate specific emotions is explored. A number of authors suggest that anger is communicated by an even contour with occasional sharp increases in pitch and loudness. Methodological difficulties with the acoustical manipulation of relevant auditory and articulatory features are noted. It is suggested that a major step in investigating the prosodic expression of emotion will be learning how to synthesize various articulatory and auditory features. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer of serial stimulus relations by European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris): Loudness.

Four experiments investigated the ability of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) to perceive stimulus relations in serial sound patterns. Loudness was the relevant stimulus dimension. In Exp 1, Ss learned to discriminate between patterns of sine tones that increased and decreased monotonically in loudness. The discrimination transferred successfully to novel loudness levels outside the baseline training range. Starlings also maintained the discrimination when the loudness intervals between successive pattern elements were doubled in Exp 2 and when frequency was shifted in Exp 4. Successful discrimination was directly contingent on stimulus relations (i.e., increasing vs decreasing loudness levels) in Exp 3. When loudness relations were removed, the discrimination was lost. The research shows that the birds used stimulus relations as the basis for serial pattern discrimination. These results contrast with the results of earlier work on serial pitch-pattern discriminations in which birds attended preferentially to absolute as compared with relational features to guide performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Equal loudness contours derived from comparisons of sensory differences.

Determined whether stimuli differing in both frequency and intensity can be compared with respect to loudness alone or if comparisons need to be based on pitch dissimilarity, using the author and undergraduates. Ss were asked to report which of 2 pairs of tones presented sequentially had the greater loudness difference for a possible 17,995 combinations. Results indicate that loudness is an analyzable dimension of tonal experience and is separable from pitch. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of duration on the equal loudness contours of short and brief tones: 40 phones equal loudness contours. Preliminary experiments (author's transl)

Loudness balances have been obtained between 10-, 20-, 100- and 1,000-ms tones of different frequencies (62.5, 125, 250, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, 8,000 and 12,000 Hz), and a constant reference tone of 1,000 Hz and 1,000 ms duration at 40 dB SPL. The absolute thresholds were also measured on the same observers at each duration. Progressive shifts of the equal loudness contours appear when the durations become shorter, in the same direction as the corresponding shifts of the threshold curves; the shifts of the equal loudness contours and the corresponding shifts of the threshold curves do not however appear completely similar; some differences may also exist between tones of differing frequencies. These experiments were preliminary ones; some problems arise, in relation with the technique used; improvements appear necessary.     

The Doppler illusion: The influence of dynamic intensity change on perceived pitch.

Four studies illustrate a new auditory illusion associated with the Doppler effect and demonstrate a new influence of dynamic intensity change on perceived pitch. Experiment 1 confirmed the existence of a popular belief that the pitch of a moving sound source rises as the source approaches. Because there is no corresponding rise in frequency, the authors refer to the perceived pitch rise as the Doppler illusion. Experiment 2 confirmed that the effect occurs perceptually, so the belief in a "naive principle" of physics has a perceptual basis. Experiment 3 confirmed the effect does not occur under matched static conditions. Experiment 4 showed that the influence of dynamic intensity change on perceived pitch occurs outside the realm of Doppler stimuli. The findings support a dynamic dimensional interaction of pitch and loudness, with marked differences in the perception of pitch and loudness under static and dynamic conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discriminability, loudness, and masking in the rat (Rattus norvegicus): A confirmation and extension.

In Exp 1, rats discriminated between 2 sound pressure levels (SPL) of a pure tone: standard (STD) SPLs 84 and 74 dB and comparison (CO) SPLs 4, 14, and 24 dB below STD were tested in quiet and 60 dB noise at 4 and 12.5 kHz (24 conditions). The decibel difference between STD and CO accounted for only 43.52% of the variance in the signal detection measure of sensitivity, d′, across conditions, whereas the loudness difference (LD?=?STD0.35?–?CO0.35) accounted for 89.82% of the variance in d′. These results confirm and extend previous observations that: (a) equal decibel differences are not equally discriminable; (b) loudness for the rat increases as a power function of SPL with an exponent of 0.35; and (c) masked loudness is a linear function of loudness in quiet. In Exp 2, the assumptions of normal distribution and equal variance implicit in the use of the d′ measure were examined. Receiver operating characteristic curves that were well approximated by straight lines of unit slope in normal-normal coordinates were obtained and thereby validated the use of d′ in Exp 1. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual primacy of dimensions: Support for a model of dimensional interaction.

Do Ss always process multidimensional stimuli according to psychologically primary dimensions? Our hypothesis is that they do: Primary dimensions provide one component of a new model of dimensional interaction, a model that distinguishes information processed at the level of attributes from information processed at the level of the stimulus. By using sound stimuli created from the dimensions pitch–loudness (Experiments 1 and 2), pitch–timbre (Experiment 3), and loudness–timbre (Experiment 4), we tested performance in selective- and divided-attention tasks at each of three orientations of axes: 0°, 22.5°, and 45°. Each experiment revealed strong evidence of primacy: As axes rotated from 0° to 45°, selective attention deteriorated, but divided attention improved, producing a distinct pattern of convergence. Each experiment also revealed effects of congruity: Attributes from corresponding poles of a dimension (e.g., high pitch and loud) were classified faster than those from noncorresponding poles. The results fit well with our new conception but are inconsistent with other current models of dimensional interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intonation contours as signals in maternal speech to prelinguistic infants.

The utterances of 6 mothers to their 2-, 4-, and 6-mo-old infants were analyzed to determine the type of grammatical sentence, the pitch contour of the utterance, and whether the infant was gazing and smiling at the mother at the time of her utterance. Two contours were context specific for all mothers: Rising contours were used when the infant was not visually attending and the mother "wanted" eye contact; sinusoidal and bell-shaped contours were used when the infant was gazing and smiling at the mother and she wanted to maintain the infant's positive affect and gaze. Different mothers used different contours to elicit smiling when the infant was gazing but not smiling at her. Mothers also used specific pitch contours for specific types of sentences. Yes–no questions had rise contours, and "wh" questions and commands generally had fall contours. Declarative sentences had sinusoidal–bell contours rather than the fall contours. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Representational momentum in memory for pitch.

When a visual pattern is displayed at successively different orientations such that a rotation or translation is implied, an observer's memory for the final position is displaced forward. This phenomenon of representational momentum shares some similarities with physical momentum. A previous paper (M. H. Kelly and J. J. Freyd; see record 1987-33467-001) demonstrated a forward memory asymmetry using implied changes in pitch for Ss without formal musical training. This current paper replicates that earlier finding and shows that the forward memory asymmetry occurs for Ss with formal musical training as well (Exp 1). The structural similarity between representational momentum in memory for pitch with previous reports of parametric effects using visual stimuli are shown. A velocity effect for auditory momentum (Exp 2) is reported, it is demonstrated specifically that the velocity effect depends on the implied acceleration (Exp 3), and it is shown that the stopping function for auditory momentum is qualitatively the same as that for visual momentum (Exp 4). The implications of these results for theories of mental representation are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Irrelevant tones produce an irrelevant speech effect: Implications for phonological coding in working memory.

Addresses the possibility that tones disrupt serial recall of visually presented material in the same way as speech. A stream of changing tones is as disruptive of visual serial recall as 4 syllables (Exps 1 and 2). Similar effects were also shown with a repeated syllable that changed only in pitch (Exp 3). Just as for speech, the effect of tones is not at encoding but during storage of the serial lists (Exp 4 and 5). The results suggest that speech and tones are equipotent in their capacity to disrupt short-term memory. A "blackboard" model of working memory to account for the effects is outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of pitch and timbre by musically trained and untrained listeners.

Investigated how musicians and nonmusicians differentially perceive the dimensions of pitch and timbre. A categorization task was used in Exp 1 to assess Ss' ability to identify how 2 consecutively presented tones changed along these dimensions. A speeded classification task was used in Exp 2 to measure Ss' ability to ignore or take advantage of information in one dimension while attending to the other. The 2 groups differed in the degree to which variation along the dimensions influenced responses. Timbre variation affected nonmusicians' judgments of pitch more than the reverse. Musicians showed no such asymmetry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of spectral and dynamic cues in imagery for musical timbre.

The musical quality of timbre is based on both spectral and dynamic acoustic cues. Four 2-part experiments examined whether these properties are represented in the mental image of a musical timbre. Exp 1 established that imagery occurs for timbre variations within a single musical instrument, using plucked and bowed tones from a cello. Exps 2 and 3 used synthetic stimuli that varied in either spectral or dynamic properties only, to investigate imagery with strict acoustic control over the stimuli. Exp 4 explored whether the dimension of loudness is stored in an auditory image. Spectral properties appear to play a much larger role than dynamic properties in imagery for musical timbre. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On cross-modal similarity: The perceptual structure of pitch, loudness, and brightness.

Examined how pitch and loudness correspond to brightness. In Experiment 1, 16 Ss identified which of 2 lights more resembled each of 16 tones; in Experiment 2, 8 of the same 16 Ss rated the similarity of lights to lights, tones to tones, and lights to tones. (1) Pitch and loudness both contributed to cross-modal similarity, but for most Ss pitch contributed more. (2) Individuals differed as to whether pitch or loudness contributed more; these differences were consistent across matching and similarity scaling. (3) Cross-modal similarity depended largely on relative stimulus values. (4) Multidimensional scaling revealed 2 perceptual dimensions, loudness and pitch, with brightness common to both. A simple quantitative model can describe the cross-modal comparisons, compatible with the view that perceptual similarity may be characterized through a malleable spatial representation that is multimodal as well as multidimensional. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of linguistic experience on the cognitive processing of pitch in speech and nonspeech sounds.

In the present experiment, the authors tested Mandarin and English listeners on a range of auditory tasks to investigate whether long-term linguistic experience influences the cognitive processing of nonspeech sounds. As expected, Mandarin listeners identified Mandarin tones significantly more accurately than English listeners; however, performance did not differ across the listener groups on a pitch discrimination task requiring fine-grained discrimination of simple nonspeech sounds. The crucial finding was that cross-language differences emerged on a nonspeech pitch contour identification task: The Mandarin listeners more often misidentified flat and falling pitch contours than the English listeners in a manner that could be related to specific features of the sound structure of Mandarin, which suggests that the effect of linguistic experience extends to nonspeech processing under certain stimulus and task conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial interactions in binocular rivalry.

Observers tracked binocular rivalry between a pair of small, foveally viewed gratings whose orientation differed between the 2 eyes. In Exp 1, a textured annulus surrounding 1 eye's grating increased the total duration of exclusive visibility of the grating only when the grating-annulus separation was less than 0.5°. In Exp 2, observers tracked the visibility of a monocular annulus that surrounded a foveally viewed grating that was either engaged in rivalry or fused with a grating alone viewed by the other eye. The visibility of the annulus was greater when the grating it surrounded was not undergoing rivalry fluctuations. In Exp 3, the predominance of a rival grating was greater when the contours in the surrounding annulus were orthogonal to those of the rival grating. In Exp 4, total exclusive visibility of a given grating-annulus target was greater when the grating and the annulus contained the same orientation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Absolute and relative pitch discrimination in serial pitch perception by birds.

Four European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) were successfully trained to discriminate a set of temporally configured 4-tone sequences that rose in pitch on a whole-tone scale from a set of otherwise identical 4-tone sequences that fell in pitch. A series of transfer tests assessed their ability to maintain the discrimination (a) when the intensity of the tones in the patterns was varied and (b) when the patterns were shortened to 1, 2, or 3 tones. The discrimination was maintained when intensity values changed, which indicated that apparent loudness was not a relevant cue for accurate performance. When sequences were shortened, overall discrimination performance diminished. Shortened sequences produced evidence for both absolute and relative pitch perception in sequence discrimination. The discrimination depended in part on the ability to "name" particular pitches in the sequences and in part on the ability to detect that a given sequence rose or fell in pitch. Results have implications for cognitive processes in serial acoustic pattern perception by animals, for a comparative study of pitch perception guided by theories encompassing absolute and relative pitch, and for research seeking the functionally significant dimensions of natural birdsong. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pitch and rhythmic patterns affecting infants' sensitivity to musical phrase structure.

The present studies were undertaken to learn more about the nature of the cues that underlie infants' perception of musical phrase structure. Exp 1 demonstrated that infants in C. L. Krumhansl and P. W. Jusczyk's (1990) study were responding to the phrase structure instead of to the beginnings and endings of Mozart minuet stimuli. Exp 2 showed that infants treat musical passages with pauses inserted at phrase boundaries much as they do unaltered versions of the same passages. Exps 3 and 4 indicated that the direction of change in pitch height and tone duration is critical to obtaining longer orientation times to musical passages that are segmented at phrase boundaries. Finally, Exp 5 demonstrates that different effects found for the forward and reversed versions of the passages with inserted pauses are not the result of an intrinsic preference for the forward versions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)