The sound of two hands clapping: an exploratory study.

摘要: Clapping is a little‐studied human activity that may be viewed either as form of communicative group behavior (applause) or an individual sound‐generating involving two ‘‘articulators’’—the hands. The latter aspect was explored in this pilot study by means acoustical analyses and perceptual experiments. Principal components analysis 20 subjects’ average clap spectra yielded several dimensions interindividual variation were related to observed hand configuration. This relationship emerged even more clearly similar single clapper’s deliberately varied productions. In perception experiments, subjects proved sensitive spectral properties claps: For clapper, at least, listeners able judge configuration with good accuracy. Besides providing some general information on variations clapping, the present results support hypothesis sound emanating from natural source informs about changing states mechanism.