Re: Vibrato (John Neuhoff )


Subject: Re: Vibrato
From:    John Neuhoff  <neuhoffj(at)LAFVAX.LAFAYETTE.EDU>
Date:    Thu, 9 Apr 1998 17:17:00 -0400

At 04:58 PM 4/9/98, Richard M Warren wrote: >...wonder if anyone knows of an >experimental verification of the phenomenon as described in the following >quote: > >>... in the normal vibrato which involves pitch, loudness, and timbre, >>even the best ear can not isolate or identify these elements, to any >>satisfactory degree, by direct hearing. We make the situation even more >>critical and striking when we produce experimental tones in which we >>present either a pitch or an intensity pulsation alone and ask the >>musician to say which it is. Even under these circumstances, a good >>musician is quite unable to say which is which, even when the extent >>approaches the normal extent for pitch or intensity. For example, if we >>have in one case an intensity wave of 5 decibels and in another a pitch >>wave of a half-tone, he is almost as likely to call the intensity pitch, >>or the pitch intensity, as to call them correctly.... Many musicians will >>immediately take exception to this paragraph and say, "There is no danger >>in my confusing pitch and intensity in the vibrato." That is just >>another proof of the vitality of the illusion, because any one who has >>such a conviction quickly can be disillusioned by submitting himself to >>the test described. Although the experiments did not use vibrato, Mike McBeath and I found that dynamic intensity change influenced perceived pitch in the direction of the intensity change. Thus, when frequency and intensity change dynamically, the percetion of pitch appears to be a weighted vector sum of the two types of change. This is experimental evidence consistent with the above quote. = =20 See: Neuhoff, J. G., & McBeath, M. K. (1996). The Doppler Illusion: The influence of dynamic intensity change on perceived pitch. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 22 (4) 970-985.=20 Neuhoff, J. G., & McBeath, M. K. (1997). Overcoming na=EFve mental models in explaining the Doppler shift: An illusion creates confusion. American Journal of Physics, 65, 618-621. -John Neuhoff =20 ______________________________________________________________ John Neuhoff Phone: 610-250-5287 Department of Psychology FAX: 610-250-5349 Lafayette College email: neuhoffj(at)lafayette.edu Easton, PA 18042 =09 www.lafayette.edu/~neuhoffj/neuhoff.htm


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