Evaluating the influence of language on the vertical representation of auditory pitch and loudness

Evaluating the influence of language on the vertical representation of auditory pitch and loudness

Irune Fernandez-Prieto1,2, Charles Spence2, Ferran Pons3 and Jordi Navarra1

1. Fundació Sant Joan de Déu and Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona

2. Crossmodal Research Laboratory, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford

3. Departament of Cognition Development and Educational Psychology. University of Barcelona

Sounds that are high in pitch and loud in intensity are associated to upper spatial positions. The opposite appears to be true for low and quiet sounds and lower positions in space. In English, the words "high" and "low" define pitch, loudness and spatial elevation. In contrast, in Spanish and Catalan, the words "agudo/agut" and "grave/greu" are used to define high and low pitch, respectively. The words "alto/alt" or "bajo/baix" are principally associated to loudness and spatial elevation. In order to understand the influence that language might have on crossmodal associations, we conducted a study involving native speakers of English and Spanish/Catalan. The participants' task consisted on judging whether a tone was higher or lower (Experiment 1), or more or less intense (Experiment 2) than a reference tone by pressing one of two different buttons that were physically located in a upper or lower position in space. While all of the participants showed clear congruency effects between pitch or loudness and spatial elevation, English speakers showed significantly more robust congruency effects than Spanish/Catalan speakers between pitch and spatial elevation (e.g. a higher pitch and the top button). According to these results, crossmodal associations can be modulated by lexical labels.