title: The effects of acoustic variability on absolute pitch categorization: Evidence of contextual tuning.
abstract: Absolute pitch (AP) is defined as the ability to label a musical note without the aid of a reference note. Despite the large amounts of acoustic variability encountered in music, AP listeners generally experience perceptual constancy for different exemplars within note categories (e.g., recognizing that a C played on a tuba belongs to the same category as a C played on a piccolo). The present studies investigate whether AP possessors are sensitive to context variability along acoustic dimensions that are not inherently linked to the typical definition of a note category. In a speeded target recognition task, AP participants heard a sequence of notes and pressed a button whenever they heard a designated target note. Within a trial the sequence of notes was either blocked according to note-irrelevant variation or contained a mix of different instruments (Experiment 1), amplitude levels (Experiment 2), or octaves (Experiment 3). Compared to the blocked trials, participants were significantly slower to respond in the mixed-instrument and mixed-octave trials, but not the mixed-amplitude trials. Importantly, this performance difference could not be solely attributed to initial performance differences between instruments, amplitudes, or octaves. These results suggest that AP note identification is contextually sensitive.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Van Hedger
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Shannon L M
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Heald
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Howard C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Nusbaum
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological; D010897:Pitch Discrimination; D010898:Pitch Perception; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult