Perceived dimensions of 13 tones: a multidimensional scaling investigation.
24 native speakers of American English made direct ratings of dissimilarity between 13 pitch patterns superimposed on a synthetic speech-like syllable. A multidimensional scaling analysis of the data revealed four perceptual dimensions, which were interpreted as average pitch, endpoint, extreme endpoint and length. The relative importance of these dimensions varied across individual subjects.
D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D010897:Pitch Discrimination; D013060:Speech