Sarah C. Creel, Reina Mizrahi, Alicia G. Escobedo, Li Zhao, Gail D. Heyman
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Numerous studies suggest that speakers of some tone languages show advantages in musical pitch processing compared to non-tone language speakers. A recent study in adults (Jasmin et al., 2021) suggests that in addition to heightened pitch sensitivity, tone language speakers weight pitch information more strongly than other auditory cues (amplitude, duration) in both linguistic and nonlinguistic settings compared to non-tone language speakers. The current study asks whether pitch upweighting is evident in early childhood. To test this, two groups of 3- to 5-year-old children—tone-language speakers (n = 48), a group previously shown to have a perceptual advantage in musical pitch tasks (Creel et al., 2018), and non-tone-language speakers (n = 48)—took part in a musical “word learning” task. Children associated two cartoon characters with two brief musical phrases differing in both musical instrument and contour. If tone language speakers weight pitch more strongly, cue conflict trials should show stronger pitch responding than for non-tone speakers. In contrast to both adult speakers’ stronger pitch weighting and child and adult pitch perception advantages, tone-language-speaking children did not show greater weighting of pitch information than non-tone-language speaking children. This suggests a slow developmental course for pitch reweighting, contrasting with apparent early emergence of pitch sensitivity.
期刊介绍:
Music Perception charts the ongoing scholarly discussion and study of musical phenomena. Publishing original empirical and theoretical papers, methodological articles and critical reviews from renowned scientists and musicians, Music Perception is a repository of insightful research. The broad range of disciplines covered in the journal includes: •Psychology •Psychophysics •Linguistics •Neurology •Neurophysiology •Artificial intelligence •Computer technology •Physical and architectural acoustics •Music theory