Subject: Re: sometimes behave so strangely From: Valter Ciocca <vciocca@xxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 16:10:42 +0800 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>Dear Diana, Al and list, .... >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. >... true, unless you speak a tonal language, in which case you will focus on pitch patterns in order to figure out the meaning of words. In fact, I wonder whether speakers of tonal languages might be more resistant to transforming pitch into singing since for them focusing on pitch patterns has become part of the speech schema. Valter > >--------------------------------------------- > > >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 >>> >>>------------------------------------------------------ >> >>-- -- Valter Ciocca, PhD Associate Professor Division of Speech & Hearing Sciences University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR, China phone: 852 28590581 fax: 852 25590060