Browsing by Author "Myllylä, Ida-Lotta"

This thesis investigated a sound-space phenomenon related to sound-symbolic associations between vowel sounds [i] and [æ] and spatial meanings up and down. This vowel-height congruency effect was investigated with two experiments utilizing speeded choice reaction time (CRT) tasks. In Experiment 1, participants were required to vocalize [i] or [æ] while being presented with visual stimuli moving either up or down. The task was indirect, so that the phenomenon under investigation was masked by instructing the vocalizations to be produced according to distance of movement, rather than location. Due to this masking, the sound-magnitude effect typically associating high (close) vowels with small distances and low (open) vowels with large distances was also investigated in this thesis. In Experiment 2, participants produced responses according to the location of visual stimulus (up/down) or according to the aurally presented vowels [i] and [æ], while being presented with both stimuli simultaneously. In both experiments, reaction time (RT) measures were analyzed. In Experiment 1, acoustic characteristics (fundamental frequency F0, and formants F1, F2) of the vocalizations were also analyzed. The results showed, that there is a sound-symbolic association between the vowel [i] and spatial meaning up, based on the stimulus-response congruency observed in reaction time measures. The sound-magnitude effect was also found to be robust in these experiments. The sound-space association between [æ] and spatial meaning down was not found to be significant. The sound-space effect also emerged only in the experiment requiring vocalizations, and not in the experiment requiring manual responses. The sound-space effect was present in the reaction time measures, and not in the vocal characteristics of vocalizations. It was concluded, that the vowel-height congruency effect can be robustly observed (i.e., in relation to both vocal responses) only when the experimental task requires intentional and task-relevant processing of the concepts up and down. It was also estimated, that the sound-space effect related to vowel sounds [i] and [æ] and spatial meanings up/down may not be as strong, as for instance the sound-magnitude effect. Regarding the possible underlying mechanisms of sound-symbolic associations, some evidence supporting the embodiment-based articulatory views on sound symbolism was found. In addition, the intrinsic vowel pitch (IVP) phenomenon was replicated in this thesis, and it was demonstrated, that the intrinsic pitch is an important core property of vowel sounds that influences also sound-symbolic associations.