Using rising pitch as a communication metaphor: an empirical investigation

The paper describes a series of experiments in which the possibility of using rising pitch as a communication metaphor in user interfaces is investigated. These experiments were performed with one and two sequences of rising pitch notes taken either from the Diatonic or the Chromatic scale. Two groups of subjects participated in these experiments. One group consisted of British origin subjects and the second group of international origin subjects. The two groups of subjects aimed to identify cultural differences in subjects' perception of rising (ascending) pitch and synthesised voices (musical instruments). Results indicated that rising pitch can be perceived by subjects and thus can be used to communicate certain types of information with a reasonable degree of accuracy (/spl plusmn/3). All results were significant statistically. For example, information to be communicated using this rising pitch approach could be length, spatial location, lists and many other user interface or multimedia events. Cultural background did not appear to influence perception of rising pitch sequences. The change of the instrument also did not influence the perception of users. The paper concludes with a series of empirically derived design guidelines for the use of rising pitch in auditory and multimedia systems.