Study looks at why we hear talking as singing after many repetitions

[Judi Lynn]

By UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS June 9, 2018

The great Laurel-or-Yanny debate of 2018 was so fun because it shined a light on the often-illusory nature of auditory perception. What you hear may not be the same as what somebody else hears. Or, perhaps what you hear could change over time. What surely was “Yanny” to some people at first sounded a lot more like “Laurel” upon their 27th listening.

New research appearing today in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE explores these ideas further. A team from the University of Kansas has investigated the “Speech-to-Song Illusion,” where a spoken phrase is repeated and begins to sound as if it were being sung.

“There’s this neat auditory illusion called the Speech-to-Song Illusion that musicians in the ’60s knew about and used to artistic effect — but scientists didn’t start investigating it until the ’90s,” said Michael Vitevitch, professor and chair of psychology at KU, who conducted the study with undergraduate and graduate student researchers in the department’s Spoken Language Laboratory. “The illusion occurs when a spoken phrase is repeated— but after it’s repeated several times it begins to sound like it’s being sung instead of spoken.”

The KU researcher said previous studies have looked at characteristics of phrases that contribute to the illusion and have elicited the phenomenon in speakers of English, German and Mandarin. Further studies have shown brain regions that process speech to be active when a phrase is perceived as speech while brain regions that process music fire when the phrase is heard as song.

More:
http://www.psypost.org/2018/06/study-looks-hear-talking-singing-many-repetitions-51422

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

1. Wow.

Last edited Sat Jun 9, 2018, 06:52 PM - Edit history (2)

Fascinating. Good read.
Add.. let's repeat Obama over and over and see how long it takes. I wonder how this study dovetails w the chanting of monks? (If anything.) Using the word or sound "Om".
I heard at a lecture once that, although sound doesn't transmit in space (In space..no one can hear you scream), but the electrical impulses given off by frequencies around planets, can be translated to sound on earth. 'OM'...is the translated sound of the Sun.