Subject: Re: Speech intelligibility and spatial information From: Tom Brennan <g_brennantg(at)TITAN.SFASU.EDU> Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 09:54:12 -0500You're correct in that piano tuning requires both otor and auditory actions but the motor acts can only take place either after a sound has been heard so that one knows in which direction to change a note (up or down) or if one knows the result of a previous action on the tuning pins. This does allow for some separation of motor and auditory actions but it true that one must listen while physically tuning a note to determine the result of whatever physical actions are taking place. It is also true that there are often motor actions related to other listening tasks but few require a relationship to such fine motor skills as required in tuning. For those reasons, I would expect to see a different between blind and sighted tuners as the visual component involved would potentially seem to come closer to overloading the system with input than is the case for the blind. A difference just doesn't seem to be present although it seems to me that blind tuners seem to have an easier time closing out other environmental stimulation such as ambient noise when tuning. Of course, this is a very general statement with no research to back it up that I'm aware of. Tom Tom Brennan, CCC-A/SLP, RHD web page http://titan.sfasu.edu/~g_brennantg/sonicpage.html web master http://titan.sfasu.edu/~f_freemanfj/speechscience.html web master http://titan.sfasu.edu/~f_freemanfj/fluency.html