scholarly journals The absolute pitch mind continues to reveal itself

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Bermudez ◽  
Robert J Zatorre
Keyword(s):  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
The Absolute

Absolute-Pitch Judgments of Black and White-Key Pitches

1991 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie H. Takeuchi ◽  
Stewart H. Hulse
Keyword(s):  
Response Bias ◽  
Motor Response ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Choice Response ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Music Literature ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Response Biases

Absolute-pitch possessors have been reported to identify black-key pitches less quickly and accurately than they identify white-key pitches. However, it is possible in these experiments that the greater speed of identifying white-compared with black-key pitches was due to a motor response bias because the motor requirements for indicating a black-key pitch were more difficult than those for indicating a white-key pitch. The greater accuracy in identifying white-compared with black-key pitches may have been due to a choice response bias favoring white-key pitch responses. We compared absolute- pitch judgments of black-and white-key pitches in a task free of motor response biases. Subjects compared the pitch of an auditory tone with a visually presented pitch name and responded Same or Different. The absolute- pitch possessors responded significantly more slowly to black- key auditory pitches, and to black- key visual pitch names, than to white-key pitches and pitch names. These differences may have been due to perceptual and retrieval processes associated with the frequencies with which black-and white-key pitches and pitch names occur in music literature. Another possible explanation is that absolute-pitch possessors may learn absolute pitch for only white-key pitches in development and may interpolate blackkey pitches from neighboring white-key pitches. Experiments to test these alternative accounts are proposed.

Absolute Judgment of Musical Interval Width

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Aruffo ◽  
Robert L. Goldstone ◽  
David J. D. Earn
Keyword(s):  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Pitch Perception ◽  
Absolute Judgment ◽  
Musical Interval ◽  
Relative Pitch ◽  
Musical Concepts ◽  
Interval Width ◽  
Musical Tone ◽  
The Absolute

When a musical tone is sounded, most listeners are unable to identify its pitch by name. Those listeners who can identify pitches are said to have absolute pitch perception (AP). A limited subset of musicians possesses AP, and it has been debated whether musicians’ AP interferes with their ability to perceive tonal relationships between pitches, or relative pitch (RP). The present study tested musicians’ discrimination of relative pitch categories, or intervals, by placing absolute pitch values in conflict with relative pitch categories. AP listeners perceived intervals categorically, and their judgments were not affected by absolute pitch values. These results indicate that AP listeners do not infer interval identities from the absolute values between tones, and that RP categories are salient musical concepts in both RP and AP musicianship.

Tinnitus not a Reference Signal in Judgments of Absolute Pitch

1970 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. G. Stanaway ◽  
Tania Morley ◽  
S. M. Anstis
Keyword(s):  
Channel Capacity ◽  
Reference Signal ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Low Correlation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Ringing In The Ears

An experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that judgments of absolute pitch rely on a sub-liminal tinnitus (ringing in the ears) which is used as a reference tone. In a series of 144 pairs of trials, the subject alternately measured his own tinnitus; and made absolute judgments of pitch by setting a variable tone to match the frequency of a named (target) note. He judged the frequency of the 48 notes spanning the 4 octaves from A flat = 106 Hz to G = 1584 Hz. It was found that his judgments of the pitch of named notes were significantly more accurate (P < 0.01) than had been predicted from the variability of the pitch of his tinnitus. Also, there was only a very low correlation (r = 0.246) between the absolute pitch judgments and the tinnitus settings made on the same trial. This indicates that the hypothesis is false. Nevertheless, it is argued that absolute pitch judgments may not require a channel capacity of more than 3 bits per decision.

scholarly journals Memory for the absolute pitch of familiar songs

1989 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 572-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea R. Halpern
Keyword(s):  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
The Absolute

scholarly journals III. On the determination of the rate of vibration of tuning forks

1879 ◽  
Vol 28 (190-195) ◽  
pp. 291-292
Keyword(s):  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Tuning Forks ◽  
The Absolute

The paper contains a description of some experiments made with review to determine the absolute pitch of tuning forks by means of method proposed by the writers in a previous paper (“ Proc. Roy. vol. xxvi, p. 162).

The Speed of Musical Pitch Identification by Absolute-Pitch Possessors

1990 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken'ichi Miyazaki
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Musical Pitch ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Speed And Accuracy

Three experiments on absolute- pitch identification were performed to examine how quickly and accurately subjects with absolute pitch could respond to different pitch classes. Sixty different pitches in a five-octave range were tested. Subjects with absolute pitch tried to identify the tones as rapidly as possible by pressing corresponding keys on a musical keyboard or a numerical keypad, or by naming vocally. Converging evidence was obtained indicating that the speed and accuracy of responses were directly related. In general, responses to the white-key notes on the musical keyboard were faster and more accurate than those to the black-key notes, C and G being most quickly and accurately identified. This seems to reflect the differential accessibility of pitch classes in the long-term memory of the absolute-pitch possessors, which may be interpreted as a consequence of the acquisition process of absolute pitch in early life.

2. On the Wave Forms of Articulate Sounds

1878 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 582-588
Author(s):  
Fleeming Jenkin ◽  
J. A. Ewing
Keyword(s):  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Relative Pitch ◽  
Preliminary Account ◽  
Wave Forms ◽  
The Absolute

In this paper the authors gave a preliminary account of experiments made with the help of the phonograph exhibited at the last meeting. The following results have been obtained:—1. The vowel sounds can be produced by maintaining the relative pitch of the simple tones of which they are composed constant, although the absolute pitch of those simple tones may vary greatly.

Infants' Memory for Isolated Tones and the Effects of Interference

2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Plantinga ◽  
Laurel J. Trainor
Keyword(s):  
Short Duration ◽  
Negative Correlation ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Significant Negative Correlation ◽  
Pitch Matching ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Proportion Correct

IN MOST ADULTS, PITCH MEMORY FOR SINGLE tones is of short duration, and the presence of interference reduces performance in pitch matching tasks.We show that 6-month-old infants can remember the pitch of a tone for at least 2.5 s but that, like adults, their memory is disrupted by tones interpolated between repetitions of the tone-to-be-remembered. For both infants and adults, we found a significant negative correlation between the number of interference tones and proportion correct in detecting a change in pitch. Performance reached chance levels with 5 interference tones for infants, and 15 interference tones for adults. This indicates that although there may be a developmental increase with age in the length of time a memory can be held, for both 6-month-old infants and adults, memory for the absolute pitch of isolated tones fades rapidly.

Effects of Musical Training and Absolute Pitch on the Neural Processing of Melodic Intervals: A P3 Event-Related Potential Study

1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin C. Hantz ◽  
Garry C. Crummer ◽  
John W. Wayman ◽  
Joseph P. Walton ◽  
Robert D. Frisina
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
General Training ◽  
The Absolute

During perceptual tasks involving the discrimination of musical intervals, event-related potentials, specifically the P3, were measured for three subject groups: musicians without absolute pitch, musicians with absolute pitch, and nonmusicians. The two interval-discrimination tasks were a simple two-note contour task and a difficult interval-size discrimination task. Clear effects on the neural waveforms were found for both training and the presence of the absolute pitch ability. In general, training increases the amplitude and shortens the latency of the P3, while the absolute pitch ability reduces the amplitude and shortens the latency, or eliminates the P3 altogether. The absolute pitch effect may be due to the use of a long-term memory strategy involved in the correct performance of the discrimination task rather than performing the task by updating working memory each time a target occurs. Finally, these data are contrasted with those from studies involving sine tones and timbrediscrimination tasks.

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