Musical Objects, Cross-Domain Correspondences, and Cultural Choice: Commentary on “Cross-Cultural Representations of Musical Shape” by George Athanasopoulos and Nikki Moran

Eitan, Zohar

doi:10.18061/emr.v8i3-4.3942

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We chose the expression “represent sound gesturally” over instructions emphasizing a more communicative aspect of the gestures, e.g., “while listening to the music, move to it in an appropriate way, such that another child could recognize the music while watching your movements without sound” (Kohn and Eitan, 2009 ) or, pertaining to sound drawings, asking participants to “represent the sound on paper in such a way that if another member of their community saw their marks they should be able to connect them with the sound” (Athanasopoulos and Moran, 2013 ). Although constituting seemingly negligible differences in instruction, the resulting drawings and gestures may give rise to different outcomes, particularly in a cross-cultural context as discussed by Eitan ( 2013b ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Musicians are more consistent: Gestural cross-modal mappings of pitch, loudness and tempo in real-time

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cross-modal mappings of auditory stimuli reveal valuable insights into how humans make sense of sound and music. Whereas researchers have investigated cross-modal mappings of sound features varied in isolation within paradigms such as speeded classification and forced-choice matching tasks, investigations of representations of concurrently varied sound features (e.g., pitch, loudness and tempo) with overt gestures—accounting for the intrinsic link between movement and sound—are scant. To explore the role of bodily gestures in cross-modal mappings of auditory stimuli we asked 64 musically trained and untrained participants to represent pure tones—continually sounding and concurrently varied in pitch, loudness and tempo—with gestures while the sound stimuli were played. We hypothesized musical training to lead to more consistent mappings between pitch and height, loudness and distance/height, and tempo and speed of hand movement and muscular energy. Our results corroborate previously reported pitch vs. height (higher pitch leading to higher elevation in space) and tempo vs. speed (increasing tempo leading to increasing speed of hand movement) associations, but also reveal novel findings pertaining to musical training which influenced consistency of pitch mappings, annulling a commonly observed bias for convex (i.e., rising–falling) pitch contours. Moreover, we reveal effects of interactions between musical parameters on cross-modal mappings (e.g., pitch and loudness on speed of hand movement), highlighting the importance of studying auditory stimuli concurrently varied in different musical parameters. Results are discussed in light of cross-modal cognition, with particular emphasis on studies within (embodied) music cognition. Implications for theoretical refinements and potential clinical applications are provided.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Musicians are more consistent: Gestural cross-modal mappings of pitch, loudness and tempo in real-time

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This suggests the association between pitch and vertical space in congenital amusics may not be as stable as that in control individuals. On the other hand, it has been suggested that language can strengthen pre-existing associations between pitch and space (Dolscheid, Shayan, Majid, & Casasanto, 2013;Eitan, 2013). Thus, one possibility is that amusic individuals rely on semantic labels to link pitch with spatial location, and this reliance consumes additional processing time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An investigation of spatial representation of pitch in individuals with congenital amusia

Sun

Thompson

2017

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Spatial representation of pitch plays a central role in auditory processing. However, it is unknown whether impaired auditory processing is associated with impaired pitch-space mapping. Experiment 1 examined spatial representation of pitch in individuals with congenital amusia using a stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) task. For amusic and non-amusic participants, pitch classification was faster and more accurate when correct responses involved a physical action that was spatially congruent with the pitch height of the stimulus than when it was incongruent. However, this spatial representation of pitch was not as stable in amusic individuals, revealed by slower response times when compared with control individuals. One explanation is that the SRC effect in amusics reflects a linguistic association, requiring additional time to link pitch height and spatial location. To test this possibility, Experiment 2 employed a colour-classification task. Participants judged colour while ignoring a concurrent pitch by pressing one of two response keys positioned vertically to be congruent or incongruent with the pitch. The association between pitch and space was found in both groups, with comparable response times in the two groups, suggesting that amusic individuals are only slower to respond to tasks involving explicit judgments of pitch.

show abstract

Crossmodal Correspondences: Four Challenges

Deroy

Spence

2016

Multisens Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The renewed interest that has emerged around the topic of crossmodal correspondences in recent years has demonstrated that crossmodal matchings and mappings exist between the majority of sensory dimensions, and across all combinations of sensory modalities. This renewed interest also offers a rapidly-growing list of ways in which correspondences affect--or interact with--metaphorical understanding, feelings of 'knowing', behavioral tasks, learning, mental imagery, and perceptual experiences. Here we highlight why, more generally, crossmodal correspondences matter to theories of multisensory interactions.

show abstract

Musical Objects, Cross-Domain Correspondences, and Cultural Choice: Commentary on “Cross-Cultural Representations of Musical Shape” by George Athanasopoulos and Nikki Moran

Cited by 3 publications

References 17 publications

Musicians are more consistent: Gestural cross-modal mappings of pitch, loudness and tempo in real-time

Musicians are more consistent: Gestural cross-modal mappings of pitch, loudness and tempo in real-time

An investigation of spatial representation of pitch in individuals with congenital amusia

Crossmodal Correspondences: Four Challenges

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About