Linguistic description of auditory signals

Abstract

Studied the extent of agreement between adult Ss' verbal descriptions of tones differing in pitch, intermittency, and modulation. In Exp. I with 17 Ss, there was greater consistency across Ss when descriptions referred to the tone's physical characteristics than when onomatopoeic and illustrative terms (e.g., bleep, hooter) were used. Onomatopoeic labels appear to convey no more specific information than general terms (e.g., sound). However, even when labeling physical characteristics there was usually high agreement for only 1 feature of the stimulus, although the salient dimension varied with different signals. Exp. II with 22 Ss used multiple-choice procedure. If Ss had to label each tone along 2 physical dimensions, the consistency between Ss increased in accordance with the predictions of a model which assumes that judgments are made along each dimension independently, then combined probabilistically. Exp. III, with 8 groups of 13-17 Ss each, more closely examined the distribution of verbal labels along the pitch dimension. Data indicate 95% agreement between Ss for the description of isolated pure tones (heard only once and therefore without background or reference tones) if these were above 600 or below 200 Hz. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)