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Re: sometimes behave so strangely



Dear Diane, dear list,

if this is an example of speach heard as music, I have also noticed the opposite effect, namely music heard as speech. 

At least, repeated tone sequences of a few different pitches, not to far apart, with the appropriate durations, can evake suddenly the impression of a spoken word repeated over and over again. It can even happen that the word changes into another word.

Leon van Noorden

.


> 
> Dear Al (and List),
> 
> You raise some very interesting points. I don't think that the  
> explanation lies in semantic satiation, because the words (vowels and  
> consonants) are still heard very clearly, even though the phrase  
> appears to be sung. I do agree, though, that the answer lies, at  
> least in part,  in the pitch modulations - though exactly what  
> happens isn't clear. At the ASA meeting I presented an illustration  
> showing the pitch tracing of my original rendition, and that of a  
> subject repeating what she heard after multiple  repetitions. The  
> contours of all  the syllables were flattened in the subject's  
> rendition, and it's my strong impression that people literally begin  
> to hear the contours  as flattened. I'd be happy to send this  
> illustration to anyone who is interested.
> 
> You also raise the point that the transformation of the phrase from  
> speech to song endures - so that when people listen again to the full  
> sentence, I appear to burst into song. This , to my mind, is a  
> particularly  puzzling aspect of the effect. People have told me that  
> the effect is still present, unattenuated, even months  later - and  
> this was certainly my experience. As you point out, perhaps the most  
> important question raised by this demonstration is why people don't  
> always hear speech as song. After all,  the vowel components of words  
> are harmonic complexes - yet  the pitch characteristics of speech are  
> usually suppressed in perception.
> 
> The composer Mussorggsky wrote in a letter to Rimsky-Korsokoff:
> 
> 'whatever speech I hear, no matter who is speaking ... my brain  
> immediately sets to working out a musical exposition for this  
> speech' . On listening to his music  - particularly his song cycles   
> - one can deliberately flip one's perception to a different mode, and  
> hear, very convincingly, the intonation of Russian speech. I've often  
> wondered whether Mussorgsky may have heard all speech as we hear  
> 'sometimes behave so strangely' after repetition.
> 
> All best,
> 
> Diana
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> Professor Diana Deutsch
> Department of Psychology
> University of California, San Diego
> 9500 Gilman Dr. #0109
> La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, USA
> 
> 858-453-1558 (tel)
> 858-453-4763 (fax)
> 
> http://www-psy.ucsd.edu/~ddeutsch
> http://www.philomel.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Dec 12, 2006, at 10:08 PM, Al Bregman wrote:
> 
> > Dear Diana (and List),
> >
> > Yes indeed! The repetitions do seem to comvert spoken speech to  
> > singing.
> >
> > I wonder whether your phenomenon isn't related to that of "semantic
> > satiation", in which a word that is repeated over and over tends to
> > lose its meaning and to be perceived as a sequence of sounds.  The
> > meaning is not lost in an all-or-nothing fashion, but tends to get
> > weaker and weaker.  (See
> > .http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499s99/yamauchi/semantic.htm)
> >
> > In the case of your demonstration there is a strongly modulated F0
> > (intonation contour) over the phrase.  It may be that when we hear
> > ordinary speech, which contains pitch modulation (an acoustic
> > phenomenon that is present in both music and speech), the speech and
> > musical schemas are both evoked and compete with one another.
> > However, when the cues for speech are dominant (i.e., continuous and
> > non-repeating modulation of F0, without pausing on particular
> > pitches), the musical interpretation is suppressed.  But when the
> > phrase is repeated many times, a satiation and weakening of the speech
> > interpretation occurs (as in semantic satiation), thereby allowing the
> > musical interpretation to become more dominant.  Of course it doesn't
> > become completely dominant, or else we wouldn't hear speech at all.
> > Rather there is an intermediate form of activation in which we hear
> > both speech and music (i.e., singing).
> >
> > In your demonstration, immediately after hearing the phase as melodic,
> > when we listen to the whole sentence again, we still maintain an
> > association between the phrase and the melodic interpretation.  I
> > wonder how long this aftereffect lasts.
> >
> > Your demonstration raises the fascinating question of why we don't
> > ALWAYS hear speech as singing.  It may be that persons with absolute
> > pitch come closer to this than the rest of us do, or at least can turn
> > it on when they want to.  A number of years ago, I asked Poppy Crum, a
> > graduate student of mine who had absolute pitch, whether she could
> > assign musical note values to my intonation pattern as I said a
> > phrase.  She replied that this was easy, and gave me a sequence of
> > note names.
> >
> > Whatever the explanation of your phenomenon, it is truly interesting,
> > and raises some challenging questions.  I hope you yourself, or some
> > of our colleagues, will be able to shed light on the phenomenon
> > through a series of analytical experiments.
> >
> > All the best,
> >
> > Al
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Albert S. Bregman, Emeritus Professor
> > Psychology Department, McGill University
> > 1205 Docteur Penfield Avenue
> > Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 1B1.
> >     Tel: (514) 484-2592, (514) 398-6103
> >     Fax: (514) 484-2592
> > www.psych.mcgill.ca/labs/auditory/Home.html
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> >
> > On 12/12/06, Diana Deutsch <ddeutsch@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> Dear list,
> >>
> >>  I've had a number of requests for the sound demonstration I   
> >> presented at
> >> the recent ASA meeting in Honolulu,  in which the spoken phrase  
> >> 'sometimes
> >> behave so strangely'   following several repetitions, appears  
> >> convincingly
> >> to be  sung rather than spoken - though there is no musical  
> >> context and no
> >> physical transformation of the sound. This demonstration, together  
> >> with
> >> spoken commentary, is on my CD 'Phantom Words and Other Curiosities'
> >> (available from Philomel Records - http://www.philomel.com).
> >>
> >> The sound demonstration is also posted  on the website:
> >>
> >> http://philomel.com/phantom_words/description.html#sometimes
> >>
> >> and it's described in the booklet accompanying the CD, which is  
> >> posted at:
> >>
> >> http://philomel.com/phantom_words/booklet/
> >>
> >> Happy Holidays!
> >>
> >> Diana Deutsch
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > --
> >
> 
>