Abstract
Higher frequency and louder sounds are associated with higher positions whereas lower frequency and quieter sounds are associated with lower locations. In English, “high” and “low” are used to label pitch, loudness, and spatial verticality. By contrast, different words are preferentially used, in Catalan and Spanish, for pitch (high: “agut/agudo”; low: “greu/grave”) and for loudness/verticality (high: “alt/alto”; low: “baix/bajo”). Thus, English and Catalan/Spanish differ in the spatial connotations for pitch. To analyze the influence of language on these crossmodal associations, a task was conducted in which English and Spanish/Catalan speakers had to judge whether a tone was higher or lower (in pitch or loudness) than a reference tone. The response buttons were located at crossmodally congruent or incongruent positions with respect to the probe tone. Crossmodal correspondences were evidenced in both language groups. However, English speakers showed greater effects for pitch, suggesting an influence of linguistic background.
Highlights
Higher frequency and louder sounds are associated with higher positions whereas lower frequency and quieter sounds are associated with lower locations
We compared the performance of participants discriminating pitch and loudness between a probe and a reference tone in congruent and incongruent conditions in the English and the Spanish/Catalan group
The results of the present study suggest that auditory pitch and loudness can modulate spatial processing
Summary
Higher frequency and louder sounds are associated with higher positions whereas lower frequency and quieter sounds are associated with lower locations. Many studies have suggested the existence of crossmodal correspondences between specific acoustic features such as pitch or loudness (i.e., high vs low sounds) and other perceptual features such as spatial elevation (high vs low positions, respectively; see Deroy, Fernandez-Prieto, Navarra, & Spence, in press; Spence, 2011, for reviews). These crossmodal interactions between pitch and spatial elevation often generate congruency effects. The use of space-centered metaphorical expressions to refer to auditory features was already suggested by the philosopher Carl Stumpf late in the 19th century. Stumpf (1883) pointed out that sounds are usually defined with linguistic labels referring to high- and low-spatial positions in the majority of languages
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