When the stimulus was repeated in the speech-to-song study, what did participants do?

• A. They sang the phrase back, and produced fundamental frequencies closer to the original recording and aligned with musical intervals
• B. They repeated the phrase in speech with no pitch changes
• C. They tapped the rhythm but did not vocalize
• D. They wrote down the phrase

Answer: (A)

When a stimulus that resembles speech is heard repeatedly, people tend to transform the reproduction into a musical one, using pitch-based memory to guide their output. In this study, repeating the stimulus prompted participants to sing the phrase back rather than recite it in speech. Their produced fundamental frequencies moved closer to the original recording and followed the melodic interval structure, showing that the repetition shifted their output toward a song-like, pitch-accurate representation. In other words, repetition strengthens a melodic encoding that manifest in sung reproduction, not mere speech or non-vocal tasks.