| 研究実績の概要 |
Aim of the research project is to monitor the relative influence of perceivable and semantic features of stimuli on sound iconic associations. To this end, experiments are conducted in which implicit associations between acoustic and visual stimuli are tested. In these experiments, perceivable and semantic features of the visual stimuli oppose each other. For example, big objects (e.g., elephant) are depicted smaller than small objects (e.g., mouse).
Two experiments were conducted in which associations of vowels with size were tested. Previous research suggests that back vowels are preferably associated with bigness whereas front vowels are preferably associated with smallness. The research design was based on the idea that participants are able to categorize stimuli faster when associated stimuli are allocated to the same response behavior.
In the first experiment, visual stimuli depicted either small or big animals. In the second experiment, visual stimuli depicted dominant or submissive behavior. Based on previous research it was hypothesized that participants tend to implicitly associate big animals and dominant behavior with back-vowels. In both experiments, perceivable features of the pictures (i.e., size and shape) predicted the respective opposite result.
Results clearly suggest that the influence of semantic features outweighs the one of perceivable features. That is, participants preferably associated visual stimuli that connoted bigness or dominance with back-vowels even if size and shape of the pictures predicted associations with front vowels.
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