Does Language Influence the Vertical Representation of Auditory Pitch and Loudness?

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.

Vertical Mapping of Auditory Loudness: Loud is High, but Quiet is not Always Low

“…Our results are in line with previous findings that suggest the existence of a perceptual (or representational) link between loudness and spatial verticality (Bruzzi et al, 2017;Eitan & Granot, 2006;Eitan et al, 2008;Fernandez-Prieto et al, 2017). Specifically, the pattern of results found in the present study also implies that this link is stronger (or even limited to) for the association between loud sounds and high spatial positions than for the association between quiet sounds and low positions.…”

“…In this way, participants were instructed to respond based on the arbitrary relationship between loudness and colour, without the explicit implication of a linguistic label directly related to verticality. This allowed us to avoid a possible linguistic confound that could account for the association between loudness and verticality (see Fernandez-Prieto et al, 2017).…”

“…In another study by Fernandez-Prieto and collaborators (Fernandez-Prieto, Spence, Pons, & Navarra, 2017), a crossmodal effect between loudness and verticality was found both in bilingual Spanish/Catalan speakers and monolingual English speakers. Participants had to judge whether a sound was louder or quieter than a probe sound.…”

The Cue-integrated Sense of Agency – as Operationalized in Experiments – is not a (Multisensory) Perceptual Effect, but is a Judgment Effect

“…Wegner and Erskine, 2003;Henk Aarts, 2007;Linser and Goschke, 2007;Aarts, Oikawa, and Oikawa, 2010;Wenke, Fleming, and Haggard, 2010;Gentsch and Schütz-Bosbach, 2011;Dewey and Carr, 2012;Sidarus, Chambon, and Haggard, 2013;Damen, van Baaren, and Dijksterhuis, 2014). In the case of implicit SoA, some experiments have shown that primed concepts influence intentional binding reports (e.g., Moore et al, 2009;Aarts and van den Bos, 2011;Aarts et al, 2012;Khalighinejad et al, 2017) as well as sensory attenuation reports (Gentsch and Schütz-Bosbach, 2011;Allenmark et al, 2015;Fernandez-Prieto et al, 2017). It has to be noted that this paper focuses on the criticism of the cue integration theory in the context of explicit SoA reports rather than implicit SoA reports, as I have criticized the implicit SoA operationalizationwhich assumes the debatable cognitive penetration 3 assumption elsewhere.…”

Audio–visual crossmodal correspondences in domestic dogs ( Canis familiaris )

“…For example, in both auditory pitch and spatial elevation, a number of human languages use shared vocabulary across both domains (e.g. 'high'-'low' for both pitch and elevation [10]). Such linguistic pairings may have given rise to intuitive correspondencesor indeed may have arisen from them in the development of language [11].…”