IIIT Hyderabad Publications |
|||||||||
|
Do Pitch and Space Share Common Code?Author: Pulkit Singhal Date: 2018-02-10 Report no: IIIT/TH/2018/4 Advisor:Priyanka Srivastava AbstractThis research aims to investigate the crossmodal correspondences between pitch and space. Crossmodal correspondences refer to the associations that exist between different physical stimulus attributes or properties in different modalities. In the context of this thesis, we see the association between pitch as one physical attribute and space as another. Research refers to this as pitch-space mapping and has been frequently investigated through various methods. In recent times, however, pitch-space mapping has been investigated by employing the stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) paradigm. SRC refers to the fact that performance is better when stimuli and responses are paired with each other in certain ways i.e. stimulus and response share common features than when they do not. Perception-action coupling is facilitated due to such correspondences resulting in higher accuracy and faster response times (Rts). Previous research shows that performance is better when a high pitch is responded with up or right responses and a low pitch is responded with down or left responses, called the spatial-pitch association of response codes (SPARC) effect. In this thesis, we have investigated the SPARC effect by introducing certain manipulations which are now briefly explained. Our first manipulation stems from the need to employ feedback in an SRC based task, more specifically SPARC effect in this case. Despite the intuitive coupling of perception-action, studies investigating the SPARC effect have, however, used feedback to manipulate the stimulus-response mapping. Feedback contradicts the purpose of intuitive stimulus-response mapping by enabling short-term learning. Our first section primarily investigates the role of feedback on SPARC effect. The second study of the thesis explores the role of loudness in pitch-space mapping. Even though all the recent studies more or less establish the pitch-space mapping, little has been questioned about the dimension of loudness that can interact with the spatial representation of pitch. It has been shown that loudness and pitch interact in the perception of a multidimensional stimulus such as auditory tone. They form an inseparable perceptual couple and therefore variation in one can cause a subjective variation in the other. Hence, pitch perception is confounded with loudness. Moreover, loudness too has its own spatial representation which can interact with the spatial representation of pitch. Our second study, therefore, investigates the role of loudness equalization on the SPARC effect. Finally, the third question addresses the role of blindness in pitch-space mapping. Our motivation for this study comes from the fact that even though visually impaired have an absent modality of vision, they have functional spatial representations of the world around derived through other modalities. They also exhibit similar if not better performance in pitch perception tasks as well. Hence, it was intriguing to see whether a lack of vision has any role on the SPARC effect. We found consistent vertical SPARC effect and horizontal SPARC effect in the first two manipulations. Moreover, both feedback and loudness equalization influenced the horizontal SPARC effect. The third study showed no SPARC effect in visually impaired participants. However, the results from third study are not conclusive due to the limitations and challenges described in the corresponding chapter. Full thesis: pdf Centre for Cognitive Science |
||||||||
Copyright © 2009 - IIIT Hyderabad. All Rights Reserved. |