Effects of culture on musical pitch perception

Effects of culture on musical pitch perception

• Wong, Patrick C. M. Northwestern University
• Ciocca, Valter University of British Columbia
• Chan, Alice H. D. Nanyang Technology University
• Ha, Louisa Y. Y. Northwestern University
• Tan, Li Hai University of Hong Kong
• Peretz, Isabelle University Montreal

PL o S One, 7(4), e33424-e33424, 2012

Public Library of Science

2012

• A Human Growth & Development
  • AE Socioeconomic & Cultural Differences, Class & Family Background

Tone Language Speakers Congenital Amusia Speaking Musicians Brain Chinese Frequency Identification Cognition Patterns English Science & Technology - Other Topics

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Unknown or Unspecified

The strong association between music and speech has been supported by recent research focusing on musicians' superior abilities in second language learning and neural encoding of foreign speech sounds. However, evidence for a double association-the influence of linguistic background on music pitch processing and disorders-remains elusive. Because languages differ in their usage of elements (e.g., pitch) that are also essential for music, a unique opportunity for examining such language-to-music associations comes from a cross-cultural (linguistic) comparison of congenital amusia, a neurogenetic disorder affecting the music (pitch and rhythm) processing of about 5% of the Western population. In the present study, two populations (Hong Kong and Canada) were compared. One spoke a tone language in which differences in voice pitch correspond to differences in word meaning (in Hong Kong Cantonese, /si/ means 'teacher' and 'to try' when spoken in a high and mid pitch pattern, respectively). Using the On-line Identification Test of Congenital Amusia, we found Cantonese speakers as a group tend to show enhanced pitch perception ability compared to speakers of Canadian French and English (non-tone languages). This enhanced ability occurs in the absence of differences in rhythmic perception and persists even after relevant factors such as musical background and age were controlled. Following a common definition of amusia (5% of the population), we found Hong Kong pitch amusics also show enhanced pitch abilities relative to their Canadian counterparts. These findings not only provide critical evidence for a double association of music and speech, but also argue for the reconceptualization of communicative disorders within a cultural framework. Along with recent studies documenting cultural differences in visual perception, our auditory evidence challenges the common assumption of universality of basic mental processes and speaks to the domain generality of culture-to-perception influences.
[Copyright of Public Library of Science. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033424]

• English

Journal Articles

• 19326203

• 10.1371/journal.pone.0033424

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/fc8af50d

2014-08-07