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No description available.

A theory of the evolution of low voice pitch in men suggests that (a) voice pitch is used as an indicator of success in mate competition; (b) pitch is used as an indicator of dominance more for men’s voices than women’s; (c) pitch affects dominance ratings more than attractiveness ratings. While early studies supported these ideas, several subsequent studies have failed to replicate these results with mainly male raters, because of the idea that men’s perceptions affect selection more than women’s do. We tested the extent to which these findings apply to women’s perceptions of the aforementioned characteristics, as well as to other characteristics related to voice pitch and dominance: perceived body size, competitiveness, cooperativeness, socio-economic status, and attractiveness. We manipulated pitch in men’s and women’s voices and tested women’s perceptions thereof. Women chose low voices as belonging to a speaker that is more physically/socially dominant, less cooperative, larger, higher in socio-economic status, and (for men’s voices) more attractive. In contrast to hypotheses of theories on the evolution of low voice pitch in men, pitch had no effect on perceptions of competitiveness, nor did it affect either physical or social dominance ratings more than it affected attractiveness ratings. Surprisingly, pitch affected dominance perceptions of women’s voices more than men’s. Thus, despite previous evidence that some men modify their voices in competitive scenarios, our data are unable to support the idea that this information is used by women to infer dominance related to competitiveness. We contribute to the growing literature that finds no difference in the amount that voice pitch affects dominance and attractiveness ratings or fails to find stronger effects for male than female voices. Our data are consistent with theories that dominance ratings are the result of a general response bias to stimuli varying in pitch. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Low voice pitch is associated with perceptions of dominance, size, attractiveness, higher socio-economic status, and low cooperativeness. Since men lower their voice pitch in competitive scenarios, we predicted low pitch would be tied to perceptions of competitiveness of the speaker. We manipulated pitch in men’s and women’s voices, and female participants chose which voice they thought belonged to the person who was more physically/socially dominant, competitive, cooperative, larger, higher in socio-economic status, and more attractive. Women chose low voices as being more physically/socially dominant, less cooperative, larger, higher in socio-economic status, and (for male voices only) more attractive than higher voices. Pitch had no effect on perceptions of competitiveness, it did not affect perceptions of dominance for male speakers more than female speakers, neither did it affect perceptions of dominance more than attractiveness. This challenges the idea that low pitch in men evolved to primarily signal success in intrasexual competition.

The purpose of this study is to show how standards of pitch became a matter of importance in musical performance. The existence of innumerable varieties of pitches was not an actual handicap in a time when voices were accompanied by only one instrument, or when a singer accompanied himself. But when instruments began to be used with the church organ, and ensembles were formed to play in the royal courts, a standard pitch was found to be desirable. Many factors were involved in the adjustments of pitch as small ensembles evolved into the military band and the symphony orchestra. An attempt will be made to show how many of the standards were derived, and what long lasting effects they had.

A complex tone composed of only higher-order harmonics typically elicits a pitch percept equivalent to the tone's missing fundamental frequency (f0). When judging the direction of residue pitch change between two such tones, however, listeners may have completely opposite perceptual experiences depending on whether they are biased to perceive changes based on the overall spectrum or the missing f0 (harmonic spacing). Individual differences in residue pitch change judgments are reliable and have been associated with musical experience and functional neuroanatomy. Tone languages put greater pitch processing demands on their speakers than non-tone languages, and we investigated whether these lifelong differences in linguistic pitch processing affect listeners' bias for residue pitch. We asked native tone language speakers and native English speakers to perform a pitch judgment task for two tones with missing fundamental frequencies. Given tone pairs with ambiguous pitch changes, listeners were asked to judge the direction of pitch change, where the direction of their response indicated whether they attended to the overall spectrum (exhibiting a spectral bias) or the missing f0 (exhibiting a fundamental bias). We found that tone language speakers are significantly more likely to perceive pitch changes based on the missing f0 than English speakers. These results suggest that tone-language speakers' privileged experience with linguistic pitch fundamentally tunes their basic auditory processing.

This thesis is a detailed investigation of the phonology and phonetics of the intonation of Persian carried out in the framework of the AM theory of intonational phonology. Based on 2112 utterances read by a total of 8 native speakers, the work, on the one hand, presents a phonological account of the prosodic structure of this language, a structure that consists of the level Accentual Phrase with the pitch accent (L+)H* immediately dominated by the level Intonational Phrase, each level being marked by a low or high boundary tone. On the other hand, it scrutinizes the phonetic implementation of tones with regard to segments and shows how the phonology of Persian intonation is phonetically realized in the speech string. This research also studies the intonational patterns of simplex sentences, compound sentences coordinated with different types of conjunctions, subordinate structures, and vocative constructions. The sentence types include copular verb declaratives, sentences with unaccusative and unergative verbs, (S)(O)V sentences with and without adjuncts, null subject sentences, scrambled sentences, yes/no questions, leading yes/no questions, alternative questions, tag questions, single and multiple WH-questions, echo questions, imperatives, and single, double, and phrase focus constructions. / February 2008

In this study I attempted to create a historically informed performance of Handel's Four Coronation Anthems at the pitch of a1 = 423, without the benefit of baroque instruments. The issue of lowering the performance pitch from a1 = 440 to a1 = 423 had varying effects on the singers and instrumentalists. Replicating the baroque sound required some modifications to modern instruments and some mental and vocal adjustments for the singers. Several singers experienced vocal relief due to the lowered pitch, while some instrumentalists were faced with re-adjusting their technique to compensate for the modifications made to their instruments. The modifications ranged from exchanging the violin and viola strings from steel to gut to lengthening the oboe reeds and the bassoon's bocal enough to effectively lower the pitch almost a half step, or .17 Hertz (Hz.). Through the aid of audio and visual recordings of the performance and the performer's questionnaires, several discoveries were made about creating a historically informed performance. Primarily, when changing the pitch of a composition, it is better to adjust the pitch in half steps rather than quarter-tone increments. It was further revealed when changing the pitch that some singers experienced difficulty maintaining pitch due to their vocal muscle memory, whereas, some instrumentalists possess varying degrees of individual pitch memory and perception. In order to deal effectively with the issue of maintaining pitch, it was revealed that it is important to have more rehearsal time at the adjusted pitch. With respect to the modifications made to the instruments, it is vital to the success of the performance to allow the players enough time with modified instruments to be able to maintain consistent tuning within the instrument. The musician's individual pitch perception and preference have an affect on the performance, and the conductor would be well advised to refer to the discoveries presented in this document. This study was successful in discovering ways to present a historically informed performance at a pitch other than a1 = 440 and several suggestions for creating further historically informed performances were explored.

This thesis is a detailed investigation of the phonology and phonetics of the intonation of Persian carried out in the framework of the AM theory of intonational phonology. Based on 2112 utterances read by a total of 8 native speakers, the work, on the one hand, presents a phonological account of the prosodic structure of this language, a structure that consists of the level Accentual Phrase with the pitch accent (L+)H* immediately dominated by the level Intonational Phrase, each level being marked by a low or high boundary tone. On the other hand, it scrutinizes the phonetic implementation of tones with regard to segments and shows how the phonology of Persian intonation is phonetically realized in the speech string. This research also studies the intonational patterns of simplex sentences, compound sentences coordinated with different types of conjunctions, subordinate structures, and vocative constructions. The sentence types include copular verb declaratives, sentences with unaccusative and unergative verbs, (S)(O)V sentences with and without adjuncts, null subject sentences, scrambled sentences, yes/no questions, leading yes/no questions, alternative questions, tag questions, single and multiple WH-questions, echo questions, imperatives, and single, double, and phrase focus constructions.