What’s the difference between singing and talking? Diana Deutsch discovered that a spoken phrase morphs into singing if it is repeated four or five times.
In this short clip from Radio Lab she is explaining how she discovered the phenomenon to the host Jad Abumrad.
Here’s the original phrase again. Does it sound different?
I tried the same thing with a clip from another show. This is from a radio show called Think produced by KERA in Dallas. Krys Boyd is introducing her guest, James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.
I just picked a short phrase at random and looped it. Listen to the looped phrase to fool your brain.
Here’s the original again. My brain was tricked.
Diana Deutsch has a couple of CDs demonstrating her discoveries. There are samples on her website:
