Absolute pitch learning in adults speaking non-tonal languages

Absolute pitch (AP) refers to labelling individual pitches in the absence of external reference. A widely endorsed theory regards AP as a privileged ability enjoyed by selected few with rare genetic makeup and musical training starting in early childhood. However, recent evidence showed that even adults can learn AP, and some can attain a performance level comparable to natural AP possessors. These training studies involved native tonal language speakers, whose acquisition of AP might be facilitated by tonal language exposure during early childhood. In this study, adults speaking non-tonal languages went through AP training that was 20-hr long, computerised and personalised. Performance on average improved, which was accompanied by enhanced working memory for tones, whereas relative pitch judgement and sensitivity to small pitch differences remained unchanged. Notably, two out of 13 learned to label all 12 pitches within an octave, with accuracy and response time comparable to natural AP possessors. Overall, the findings suggest that tonal language exposure is not a prerequisite for AP learning in adulthood. The understanding of the origin of AP would benefit from considering the role of lifelong learning instead of focusing only on early childhood experience.

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Is it impossible to acquire absolute pitch in adulthood?

10.1101/355933 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Yetta Kwailing Wong ◽

Kelvin F. H. Lui ◽

Ken H.M. Yip ◽

Alan C.-N. Wong

Keyword(s):

Critical Period ◽

Small Sample Size ◽

Musical Training ◽

Continuous Distribution ◽

Absolute Pitch ◽

Small Sample ◽

Sustained Improvement ◽

External Reference ◽

Genetic Makeup

AbstractAbsolute pitch (AP) refers to the rare ability to name the pitch of a tone without external reference. It is widely believed that AP is only for the selected few with rare genetic makeup and early musical training during the critical period. Accordingly, acquiring AP in adulthood is impossible. Previous studies have not offered a strong test of the effect of training because of issues like small sample size and insufficient training. In three experiments, adults learned to name pitches in a computerized and personalized protocol for 12 to 40 hours. They improved considerably, with a continuous distribution of learning progress among them. 14% of the participants (6 out of 43) were able to name twelve pitches at accuracy of 90% or above, comparable to that of ‘AP possessors’ as defined in the literature. In general, AP learning showed classic characteristics of perceptual learning, including generalization of learning dependent on the training stimuli, and sustained improvement for at least one to three months. Overall, the finding that AP continues to be learnable in adulthood calls for reconsidering the role of learning in the occurrence of AP. The finding also pushes the field to pinpoint and explain, if any, the differences between the aspects of AP more trainable in adulthood and the aspects of AP that are potentially exclusive for the few exceptional AP possessors.

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Absolute Pitch in Williams Syndrome

Music Perception An Interdisciplinary Journal ◽

10.1525/mp.2001.18.4.491 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 491-503 ◽

Cited By ~ 49

Author(s):

Howard M. Lenhoff ◽

Olegario Perales ◽

Gregory Hickok

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

General Population ◽

Williams Syndrome ◽

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Critical Period ◽

Absolute Pitch ◽

Relative Pitch

Absolute pitch is reported to occur in 1 out of 10,000 persons, usually those trained in music before age 6. We demonstrate that the five individuals we tested, who have Williams syndrome, a condition caused by a microdeletion of about 20 genes in the q11.23 region of one of their two chromosomes number seven, possess near ceiling levels of absolute pitch despite their limited cognitive abilities. With these individuals, we also describe our preliminary findings on relative pitch, transposition, and retention. We discuss the possibilities that (1) the incidence of absolute pitch among individuals with Williams syndrome is higher than that found in the general population and (2) the normal early childhood critical period of absolute pitch acquisition may be extended in individuals with Williams syndrome.

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Number 13 / Part I. Music. 7. Grounds of Absolute Pitch Development in Yamaha Music School

Review of Artistic Education ◽

10.1515/rae-2017-0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 60-65

Author(s):

Dorina Iușcă

Keyword(s):

Music Education ◽

Musical Training ◽

Absolute Pitch ◽

Music School ◽

Tone Language ◽

External Reference ◽

Educational Implications ◽

Didactic Strategies ◽

Early Training ◽

The Way

Abstract Absolute pitch is defined as the ability to identify the pitch class of a certain given sound without the aid of an external reference pitch (Takeuchi & Hulse, 1993; Deutsch, 2002). The incidence of absolute pitch is extremely rare among the general population, respectively 1 in 10.000 people and it depends on testing conditions such as the number of identified sounds, pitch Chroma, pitch height, timbre, register or requested reaction time, and also on subjects musical training commencing and Eastern-Asian origins. The way absolute pitch develops is described by three models: the tone language theory, the early training theory and the genetic theory. The early training theory states that absolute pitch appears due to the beginning of musical lessons during a critical development period situated before the age of 6. The educational implications of this theory are revealed in the principles and activities of Yamaha Music School which employs didactic strategies that naturally develop absolute pitch. Yamaha Music School is the largest private music education system from Japan, established by Torakusu Yamaha in 1954. Up to this day it has extended in 40 countries from Europe, Asia and the American continents, as it has about 710 million students and 30.000 teachers. The present study aims to illustrate a detailed analysis of the way the learning experiences offered by Yamaha School lead to the development of absolute pitch.

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A reevaluation of the electrophysiological correlates of absolute pitch and relative pitch: No evidence for an absolute pitch-specific negativity.

10.1101/489302 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Simon Leipold ◽

Chantal Oderbolz ◽

Marielle Greber ◽

Lutz Jaencke

Keyword(s):

Statistical Power ◽

Absolute Pitch ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Auditory Evoked Potential ◽

Small Samples ◽

Replication Studies ◽

Relative Pitch ◽

External Reference ◽

Small Fields ◽

Potential Component

Musicians with absolute pitch effortlessly identify the pitch of a sound without an external reference. Previous neuroscientific studies on absolute pitch have typically had small samples sizes and low statistical power, making them susceptible for false positive findings. In a seminal study, Itoh et al. (2005) reported the elicitation of an absolute pitch-specific event-related potential component during tone listening - the AP negativity. Additionally, they identified several components as correlates of relative pitch, the ability to identify relations between pitches. Here, we attempted to replicate the main findings of Itoh et al.'s study in a large sample of musicians (n = 104) using both frequentist and Bayesian inference. We were not able to replicate the presence of an AP negativity during tone listening in individuals with high levels of absolute pitch, but we partially replicated the findings concerning the correlates of relative pitch. Our results are consistent with several previous studies reporting an absence of differences between musicians with and without absolute pitch in early auditory evoked potential components. We conclude that replication studies form a crucial part in assessing extraordinary findings, even more so in small fields where a single finding can have a large impact on further research.

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