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    Repetition enhances the musicality of speech and tone stimuli to similar degrees

    Tierney, Adam and Patel, A. and Breen, M. (2018) Repetition enhances the musicality of speech and tone stimuli to similar degrees. Music Perception 35 (5), pp. 573-578. ISSN 0730-7829.

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    Abstract

    Certain spoken phrases, when removed from context and repeated, begin to sound as if they were sung. Prior work has uncover ed several acoustic factors which determine wh ether a phrase sounds sung after repetition . However, the reason why repetition is necessary for song to be perceived in speech is unclear . One possibility is that by default pitch is not a salient attribute of speech in non - tonal languages, as spectral information is more vital for determining meaning. However, repetition may satiate lexical processing , increas ing pitch salience. A second possibility is that it takes time to e stablish the precise pitch perception necessary for as signing each syllable a musical scale degree . Here we tested these hypotheses by asking participants to rate the musicality of spoken phrases and complex tones with matching pitch contours after each of eight repetitions. Although musicality ratings were overall higher for the tone stimuli, both the speech and complex tone stimuli increased in musicality to a similar degree with repetition. Thus, although the rapid spectral variation of speech may inhibi t pitch salience , this inhibition does not decrease with repetition. Instead, repetition may be necessary for the perception of song in speech because the perception of exact pitch intervals takes time.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: © [2018] by [the Regents of the University of California/Sponsoring Society or Association]. Copying and permissions notice: Authorization to copy this content beyond fair use (as specified in Sections 107 and 108 of the U. S. Copyright Law) for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by [the Regents of the University of California/on behalf of the Sponsoring Society] for libraries and other users, provided that they are registered with and pay the specified fee via Rightslink® or directly with the Copyright Clearance Center.
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): speech, si ng ing , pitch, perception, languag e
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Depositing User: Adam Tierney
    Date Deposited: 15 Feb 2018 07:54
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:39
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/21223

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