[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: cross-modality-size-loud



Hi Bob,

I concede that Elephants are indeed louder than mice (at least potentially) and I just about still manage to shout down my unruly children who weigh less than half of what I weigh, but that just goes to show that larger organisms typically can generate larger forces than smaller ones if they have to. What I'm really trying to say is that Peter will have to be precise about what he means by 'large'. If it's 'more forceful, more energetic', then larger is indeed louder, but if it is to be a measure of the mass of a resonator or volume of a resonant cavity, then larger means deeper fundamental frequency, not necessarily louder. And I think that mice and elephants are again a good example, as the voice of an elephant is several hundred times lower than that of a mouse.

Cheers,

Jan

On 17/09/2007, Bob Carlyon <bob.carlyon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hmm.., I think this depends on whether you are talking about the source or the filter; if a large person hits a bell then it generally makes more sound than if a small person does.  When it comes to organisms, size and loudness co-vary: elephants are louder than mice, and adults are louder than their young. There are of course exceptions, as anyone who has ever taken children to a restaurant will testify...

bob



Jan Schnupp wrote:
Dear Peter,

if you hit a large bell and a small bell, how loud they are does not depend on size, but on how hard you hit them. The larger the object the deeper the sound, because resonant frequency is proportional to mass. So if there is a link with size, then it should be pitch more than loudness.

Jan

On 17/09/2007, pieter jan stallen <pj.stallen@xxxxxxxxx > wrote:

Dear List,

Does anyone know of  experimental psychological data reported which refutes (or not) the hypothesis: the perception of object O as "has much of quality X" predisposes to the perception also of "has much of quality Y"? E.g., is there empirical evidence for cross-modal bonds like "large objects (much of size) are loud objects (much of sound)" ?

Although I see brain research approaching the subject (e.g.  http://www.dhushara.com/pdf/synesthesia.pdf ) I have not (yet) found so much empirical psychology about such metaphors. I may not have studied carefully enough the synaestesia literature, but appreciate any more specific 'forwardings' then.

Pieter Jan Stallen / Chair Community Noise Annoyance / University of Leiden / Netherlands




--
Dr Jan Schnupp
University of Oxford
Dept. of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
Sherrington Building - Parks Road
Oxford OX1 3PT - UK
+44-1865-272513
www.oxfordhearing.com


-- 
Dr. Bob Carlyon
MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit
15 Chaucer Rd.
Cambridge CB2 7EF
England

Phone: +44 1223 355294 ext 651
Fax: +44 1223 359062
www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk



--
Dr Jan Schnupp
University of Oxford
Dept. of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
Sherrington Building - Parks Road
Oxford OX1 3PT - UK
+44-1865-272513
www.oxfordhearing.com