On the intonation of sinusoidal sentences: contour and pitch height

A sinusoidal replica of a sentence evokes a clear impression of intonation despite the absence of the primary acoustic correlate of intonation, the fundamental frequency. Our previous studies employed a test of differential similarity to determine that the tone analog of the first formant is a probable acoustic correlate of sinusoidal sentence intonation. Though the typical acoustic and perceptual effects of the fundamental frequency and the first formant differ greatly, our finding was anticipated by reports that harmonics of the fundamental within the dominance region provide the basis for impressions of pitch more generally. The frequency extent of the dominance region roughly matches the range of variability typical of the first formant. Here, we report two additional tests with sinusoidal replicas to identify the relevant physical attributes of the first formant analog that figure in the perception of intonation. These experiments determined (1) that listeners represent sinusoidal intonation as a pattern of relative pitch changes correlated with the frequency of the tonal replica of the first formant, and (2) that sinusoidal sentence intonation is probably a close match to the pitch height of the first formant tone. These findings show that some aspects of auditory pitch perception apply to the perception of intonation; and, that impressions of pitch of a multicomponent nonharmonic signal can be derived from the component within the dominance region.