Dolscheid, Sarah ORCID: 0000-0001-9104-6386, Celik, Simge, Erkan, Hasan, Kuntay, Aylin and Majid, Asifa ORCID: 0000-0003-0132-216X (2020). Space-pitch associations differ in their susceptibility to language. Cognition, 196. AMSTERDAM: ELSEVIER. ISSN 1873-7838

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

To what extent are links between musical pitch and space universal, and to what extent are they shaped by language? There is contradictory evidence in support of both universality and linguistic relativity presently, leaving the question open. To address this, speakers of Dutch who talk about pitch in terms of spatial height and speakers of Turkish who use a thickness metaphor were tested in simple nonlinguistic space-pitch association tasks. Both groups showed evidence of a thickness-pitch association, but differed significantly in their height-pitch associations, suggesting the latter may be more susceptible to language. When participants had to match pitches to spatial stimuli where height and thickness were opposed (i.e., a thick line high in space vs. a thin line low in space), Dutch and Turkish differed in their relative preferences. Whereas Turkish participants pre-dominantly opted for a thickness-pitch interpretation-even if this meant a reversal of height-pitch mappings-Dutch participants favored a height-pitch interpretation more often. These findings provide new evidence that speakers of different languages vary in their space-pitch associations, while at the same time showing such associations are not equally susceptible to linguistic influences. Some space-pitch (i.e., height-pitch) associations are more malleable than others (i.e., thickness-pitch).

Item Type: Journal Article
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCIDORCID Put Code
Dolscheid, SarahUNSPECIFIEDorcid.org/0000-0001-9104-6386UNSPECIFIED
Celik, SimgeUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Erkan, HasanUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Kuntay, AylinUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Majid, AsifaUNSPECIFIEDorcid.org/0000-0003-0132-216XUNSPECIFIED
URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-343020
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104073
Journal or Publication Title: Cognition
Volume: 196
Date: 2020
Publisher: ELSEVIER
Place of Publication: AMSTERDAM
ISSN: 1873-7838
Language: English
Faculty: Unspecified
Divisions: Unspecified
Subjects: no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:
KeywordsLanguage
SPATIAL METAPHOR; AUDITORY PITCH; INFANTS; SENSITIVITY; THICKNESS; MAPPINGSMultiple languages
Psychology, ExperimentalMultiple languages
URI: http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/34302

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Altmetric

Export

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item