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Videos by Diana Deutsch

Video presenting some of Diana Deutsch's illusions of music and speech, and discussing their impl... more Video presenting some of Diana Deutsch's illusions of music and speech, and discussing their implications. These include the Scale iIllusion, the Chromatic Illusion, the Phantom Words Illusion, and the Speech-to-Song Illusion. The illusions demonstrate that our brains reconstruct the sounds that arrive at our ears, in accordance with our knowledge, experience, and expectations. Presented and narrated by Diana Deutsch,

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Papers by Diana Deutsch

The American Journal of Psychology, 2007

Absolute pitch, defined as the ability to name or produce a musical note of particular pitch with... more Absolute pitch, defined as the ability to name or produce a musical note of particular pitch without benefit of a reference note, is extremely rare in the U.S. and Europe; this rarity has so far been unexplained. This paper reports a substantial difference in the prevalence of absolute pitch in two normal populations, in a large-scale study using direct, on-site testing, without self-selection from within the target populations. The subjects were students in two major music conservatories in the U.S. and in China. The Chinese subjects (n=88) all spoke the tone language Mandarin, in which pitch is used to convey the meaning of words. The American subjects (n=115) were all nontone language speakers. For both groups, the earlier the age of onset of musical training, the greater the prevalence of absolute pitch; however, its prevalence was far greater among the Chinese than the U.S. group, for each level of age of onset of musical training. The findings indicate that the potential for a...

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2006

ABSTRACT In what ways are speech and music subserved by domain‐specific mechanisms, and in what w... more ABSTRACT In what ways are speech and music subserved by domain‐specific mechanisms, and in what ways by common neural substrates? This issue is addressed with respect to absolute pitch, which has generally been considered to be a musical faculty accessible only to rare individuals. Based on several findings obtained from speakers of tone languages, it is argued that absolute pitch originally evolved to subserve speech, and that it may be acquired readily during the first year of life, if infants are given the opportunity to associate pitches with verbal labels. It is further conjectured, based on other findings, that the early acquisition of pitch accent languages, such as the Tokyo and Osaka dialects of Japanese and the Hamkyeng and Kyengsang dialects of Korean, might also be conducive to the acquisition of absolute pitch. Perceptual relationships between speech and song are next considered. These generally differ in their features; however, a spoken phrase can be perceptually transformed to appear as song rather than speech, simply by repeating it several times over without any alteration in the signal (Deutsch, 2003). This phenomenon is demonstrated, its parameters are explored, and its implications for the mechanisms underlying perception of speech and song are discussed.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2008

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2005

Pitch circularities have been produced using tones whose components stand in octave relation (She... more Pitch circularities have been produced using tones whose components stand in octave relation (Shepard, 1964; Risset, 1969). This paper describes two circular pitch scales produced by a new algorithm. Each scale consists of a bank of harmonic complex tones, each tone 500 ms in duration. As the scale descends in semitone steps, the relative amplitudes of the odd-numbered harmonics decrease

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2005

Journal of The Acoustical Society of America - J ACOUST SOC AMER, 1999

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2000

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2009

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2009

Neuropsychologia, 2007

This article reports the first study of the glissando illusion, which was created and published a... more This article reports the first study of the glissando illusion, which was created and published as a sound demonstration by Deutsch [Deutsch, D. (1995). Musical illusions and paradoxes. La Jolla: Philomel Records (compact disc)]. To experience the illusion, each subject was seated in front of two stereophonically separated loudspeakers, with one to his left and the other to his right. A sound pattern was presented that consisted of a synthesized oboe tone of constant pitch, together with a sine wave whose pitch repeatedly glided up and down (the glissando). These two components alternated continuously between the loudspeakers such that when the oboe tone emanated from the loudspeaker on the left, the glissando emanated from the loudspeaker on the right; and vice versa. The oboe tone was perceived correctly as switching between loudspeakers; however, the segments of the glissando appeared to be joined together seamlessly, such that a single, continuous tone was heard, which appeared to be moving slowly around in space in accordance with its pitch motion. Right-handers (n = 22) tended strongly to hear the glissando move between left and right, and also between low and high in space, as its pitch moved between low and high. More specifically, it was frequently heard as tracing an elliptical path aligned diagonally between a position low and to the left when its pitch was lowest, and high and to the right when its pitch was highest. Non-right-handers (n = 42) perceived the illusion in statistically different ways. The handedness correlates and other implications of the glissando illusion are discussed.

Conversations About Psychology, Volume 1, 2021

Conversations About Psychology, Volume 1, 2021

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2019

To experience the “Phantom Words” illusion (Deutsch, 2003) the listener sits in front of two loud... more To experience the “Phantom Words” illusion (Deutsch, 2003) the listener sits in front of two loudspeakers, with one to the left and the other to the right. A sequence is repeatedly presented consisting of two monosyllabic words, or one word composed of two syllables. The sequences coming from both loudspeakers are identical; however, they are offset in time so that when the first sound (word or syllable) is coming from the speaker on the right the second sound is coming from the speaker on the left; and vice versa. Listeners generally perceive different illusory words and phrases, and those appearing as from the right are often different from those appearing as from the left. Here, 20 righthanders and 20 non-righthanders (left-handers and mixed handers) listened to seven such sequences. For each handedness group, ten subjects were seated facing the loudspeakers and ten were seated facing the opposite direction. There was a highly significant tendency for righthanders to hear illusor...

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, May 1, 2017

Absolute pitch (AP) is the rare ability to name a musical note in the absence of a reference note... more Absolute pitch (AP) is the rare ability to name a musical note in the absence of a reference note. Here we show that AP possessors sometimes name notes incorrectly in accordance with an auditory illusion. AP possessors were presented with a test tone, which was followed by six intervening tones, and then by a second test tone. The test tones were either identical in pitch or they differed by a semitone. All tones were sine waves.The AP possessors were asked to ignore the intervening tones, and to name both the first and the second test tones after hearing the full sequence. In one condition in which the test tones differed, a tone that was identical in pitch to the second test tone was inserted in the intervening sequence. For example, if the first test tone was D and the second test tone was D#, the note D# was inserted in the intervening sequence. In this condition, the AP possessors showed a significant tendency to misname the first test tone as having the same pitch as the second test tone. This is the first study showing that AP possessors can be induced to misname notes in certain contexts.

Video presenting some of Diana Deutsch's illusions of music and speech, and discussing their impl... more Video presenting some of Diana Deutsch's illusions of music and speech, and discussing their implications. These include the Scale iIllusion, the Chromatic Illusion, the Phantom Words Illusion, and the Speech-to-Song Illusion. The illusions demonstrate that our brains reconstruct the sounds that arrive at our ears, in accordance with our knowledge, experience, and expectations. Presented and narrated by Diana Deutsch,

17 views

The American Journal of Psychology, 2007

Absolute pitch, defined as the ability to name or produce a musical note of particular pitch with... more Absolute pitch, defined as the ability to name or produce a musical note of particular pitch without benefit of a reference note, is extremely rare in the U.S. and Europe; this rarity has so far been unexplained. This paper reports a substantial difference in the prevalence of absolute pitch in two normal populations, in a large-scale study using direct, on-site testing, without self-selection from within the target populations. The subjects were students in two major music conservatories in the U.S. and in China. The Chinese subjects (n=88) all spoke the tone language Mandarin, in which pitch is used to convey the meaning of words. The American subjects (n=115) were all nontone language speakers. For both groups, the earlier the age of onset of musical training, the greater the prevalence of absolute pitch; however, its prevalence was far greater among the Chinese than the U.S. group, for each level of age of onset of musical training. The findings indicate that the potential for a...

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2006

ABSTRACT In what ways are speech and music subserved by domain‐specific mechanisms, and in what w... more ABSTRACT In what ways are speech and music subserved by domain‐specific mechanisms, and in what ways by common neural substrates? This issue is addressed with respect to absolute pitch, which has generally been considered to be a musical faculty accessible only to rare individuals. Based on several findings obtained from speakers of tone languages, it is argued that absolute pitch originally evolved to subserve speech, and that it may be acquired readily during the first year of life, if infants are given the opportunity to associate pitches with verbal labels. It is further conjectured, based on other findings, that the early acquisition of pitch accent languages, such as the Tokyo and Osaka dialects of Japanese and the Hamkyeng and Kyengsang dialects of Korean, might also be conducive to the acquisition of absolute pitch. Perceptual relationships between speech and song are next considered. These generally differ in their features; however, a spoken phrase can be perceptually transformed to appear as song rather than speech, simply by repeating it several times over without any alteration in the signal (Deutsch, 2003). This phenomenon is demonstrated, its parameters are explored, and its implications for the mechanisms underlying perception of speech and song are discussed.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2008

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2005

Pitch circularities have been produced using tones whose components stand in octave relation (She... more Pitch circularities have been produced using tones whose components stand in octave relation (Shepard, 1964; Risset, 1969). This paper describes two circular pitch scales produced by a new algorithm. Each scale consists of a bank of harmonic complex tones, each tone 500 ms in duration. As the scale descends in semitone steps, the relative amplitudes of the odd-numbered harmonics decrease

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2005

Journal of The Acoustical Society of America - J ACOUST SOC AMER, 1999

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2000

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2009

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2009

Neuropsychologia, 2007

This article reports the first study of the glissando illusion, which was created and published a... more This article reports the first study of the glissando illusion, which was created and published as a sound demonstration by Deutsch [Deutsch, D. (1995). Musical illusions and paradoxes. La Jolla: Philomel Records (compact disc)]. To experience the illusion, each subject was seated in front of two stereophonically separated loudspeakers, with one to his left and the other to his right. A sound pattern was presented that consisted of a synthesized oboe tone of constant pitch, together with a sine wave whose pitch repeatedly glided up and down (the glissando). These two components alternated continuously between the loudspeakers such that when the oboe tone emanated from the loudspeaker on the left, the glissando emanated from the loudspeaker on the right; and vice versa. The oboe tone was perceived correctly as switching between loudspeakers; however, the segments of the glissando appeared to be joined together seamlessly, such that a single, continuous tone was heard, which appeared to be moving slowly around in space in accordance with its pitch motion. Right-handers (n = 22) tended strongly to hear the glissando move between left and right, and also between low and high in space, as its pitch moved between low and high. More specifically, it was frequently heard as tracing an elliptical path aligned diagonally between a position low and to the left when its pitch was lowest, and high and to the right when its pitch was highest. Non-right-handers (n = 42) perceived the illusion in statistically different ways. The handedness correlates and other implications of the glissando illusion are discussed.

Conversations About Psychology, Volume 1, 2021

Conversations About Psychology, Volume 1, 2021

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2019

To experience the “Phantom Words” illusion (Deutsch, 2003) the listener sits in front of two loud... more To experience the “Phantom Words” illusion (Deutsch, 2003) the listener sits in front of two loudspeakers, with one to the left and the other to the right. A sequence is repeatedly presented consisting of two monosyllabic words, or one word composed of two syllables. The sequences coming from both loudspeakers are identical; however, they are offset in time so that when the first sound (word or syllable) is coming from the speaker on the right the second sound is coming from the speaker on the left; and vice versa. Listeners generally perceive different illusory words and phrases, and those appearing as from the right are often different from those appearing as from the left. Here, 20 righthanders and 20 non-righthanders (left-handers and mixed handers) listened to seven such sequences. For each handedness group, ten subjects were seated facing the loudspeakers and ten were seated facing the opposite direction. There was a highly significant tendency for righthanders to hear illusor...

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, May 1, 2017

Absolute pitch (AP) is the rare ability to name a musical note in the absence of a reference note... more Absolute pitch (AP) is the rare ability to name a musical note in the absence of a reference note. Here we show that AP possessors sometimes name notes incorrectly in accordance with an auditory illusion. AP possessors were presented with a test tone, which was followed by six intervening tones, and then by a second test tone. The test tones were either identical in pitch or they differed by a semitone. All tones were sine waves.The AP possessors were asked to ignore the intervening tones, and to name both the first and the second test tones after hearing the full sequence. In one condition in which the test tones differed, a tone that was identical in pitch to the second test tone was inserted in the intervening sequence. For example, if the first test tone was D and the second test tone was D#, the note D# was inserted in the intervening sequence. In this condition, the AP possessors showed a significant tendency to misname the first test tone as having the same pitch as the second test tone. This is the first study showing that AP possessors can be induced to misname notes in certain contexts.

Musical Illusions and Phantom Words, 2019

Chapter 8 begins with “stuck tunes” or “earworms,” a malady that strikes most people at times: A ... more Chapter 8 begins with “stuck tunes” or “earworms,” a malady that strikes most people at times: A tune or other musical fragment bores deep into our heads and replays itself over and over, sometimes for hours, days, or even weeks. It is argued that the present epidemic of earworms is partly due to background music being heard everywhere, and to people listening to music fairly continuously over their radios, televisions, iPods, and other devices. This constant exposure to music could sensitize our music processing systems so strongly that they tend to fire spontaneously. Several famous musicians have publically decried the ubiquity of background music, arguing that it debases our musical experience. In the past, all music was sung or played live, and in certain venues such as churches, concert and dance halls, or at special events such as birthday and wedding celebrations. Another source of earworms may be the frequent repetition of phrases within a song, a device that is now extreme...