- Email: [email protected]
Perceptual constancy for melodic contour
379
I£RCEPrUAL CDNSTANCY FOR
~LODIC
CDNIDUR
Leigh A. Thorpe University of Toronto Is infants' ability to fcrm sound categories limited to single sounds, or does it extend to complex sound sequences? Infants 9 to 11 months of age were tested in a conditiored headturn procedure fer their discrimiration of changes in the contour (pattern of ups and downs) of 5-tone melodies, in the context of variations in key (differing abso'l ut e frequencies, same frequency ratios) or in interval size (differing absolute frequencies and frequency ratios, same contour). Infants detected contour changes in both variable contexts. These results indicate that infants categorize complex auditery pa tterns on the basis of gl obal , relatioml p-oper-td es such as melodic contour. The crganizatioml prooesse s that mderlie such categorization skills are outlined, and the implications of such processing strategies fer infants' per cept.Lon of rrnning speech are considered.
I£RCEPrUAL CDNSTANCY FOR
~LODIC
CDNIDUR
Leigh A. Thorpe University of Toronto Is infants' ability to fcrm sound categories limited to single sounds, or does it extend to complex sound sequences? Infants 9 to 11 months of age were tested in a conditiored headturn procedure fer their discrimiration of changes in the contour (pattern of ups and downs) of 5-tone melodies, in the context of variations in key (differing abso'l ut e frequencies, same frequency ratios) or in interval size (differing absolute frequencies and frequency ratios, same contour). Infants detected contour changes in both variable contexts. These results indicate that infants categorize complex auditery pa tterns on the basis of gl obal , relatioml p-oper-td es such as melodic contour. The crganizatioml prooesse s that mderlie such categorization skills are outlined, and the implications of such processing strategies fer infants' per cept.Lon of rrnning speech are considered.