Award Date

December 2023

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Committee Member

Erin Hannon

Second Committee Member

Joel Snyder

Third Committee Member

Jennifer Rennels

Fourth Committee Member

Jessica Teague

Number of Pages

59

Abstract

Listeners perceive foreign speech as faster than native speech, even when there is no measurable difference in the speech rate. The mechanisms underlying this “Foreign Language Effect” are currently unknown, but one explanation is that as listeners acquire increasingly language-specific experience, they are able to parse the speech stimulus at increasingly slower levels of language structure (i.e., sentences or phrases rather than just syllables). This ability presumably gives riseto the perception that native speech is slower. Because music also has a hierarchical temporal structure, a similar phenomenon may also exist for tempo perception of culturally familiar and unfamiliar music. To do this, we assessed listeners’ familiarity with each cultural genre from regions (United States, India, Latin America, Turkey, and West Africa) of interests across the globe. Our findings revealed that both tempo and familiarity play a crucial role, as participants tended to perceive less familiar music as faster and familiar music as slower. Overall, this study presents novel evidence that familiarity can alter tempo perception, and interprets how musical familiarity, enculturation, and musical engagement may shape cognitive processes related to tempo perception.

Keywords

Auditory cognition; Cross-cultural; Music perception

Disciplines

Psychology

File Format

pdf

File Size

1100 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download


Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS