Conceptual rather than perceptual: Cross-modal binding of pitch sequencing is based on an underlying schematic structure

Abstract

Theories on the origins of cross-modal correspondences involving pitch speculate on statistical, semantically-mediated, and structural factors. We hypothesize that five apparently different conceptualizations of pitch sequencing are based on an underlying structure consisting of at least two conceptual primitives: discrete distance and unidirectional scalar change. A total of 184 children and adults were asked to rate 52 animations set to a tonal and non-tonal scale and presented as a square moving vertically, shrinking/expanding in size, narrowing/thickening in width, rotating clockwise/counterclockwise, and changing in hue. We varied the underlying structure of each visual stimulus by including or excluding one or both postulated primitives. The scores generally increased as one and then two primitives were added but did not differ across animation type (“pitch/height,” “pitch/size,” “pitch/width,” “pitch/rotation,” “pitch/hue”) if the same number of primitives was present. Overt movement may be preferred to static representations as the third primitive factor. Results suggest that cross-modal binding of pitch-sequencing is a conceptual task – based on an abstract schematic structure rather than lexicalizations from the mother tongue or lower-level perceptual clues.