A Tendency Towards Details? Inconsistent Results on Auditory and Visual Local-To-Global Processing in Absolute Pitch Musicians

Abstract

Absolute pitch, the ability to name or produce a musical tone without a reference, is a rare ability which is often related to early musical training and genetic components. However, it remains a matter of debate why absolute pitch is relatively common in autism spectrum disorders and why absolute pitch possessors exhibit higher autistic traits. By definition absolute pitch is an ability that does not require the relation of tones but is based on a lower-level perceptual entity than relative pitch (involving relations between tones, intervals, and melodies). This study investigated whether a detail-oriented cognitive style, a concept borrowed from the autism literature (weak central coherence theory), might provide a framework to explain this joint occurrence. Two local-to-global experiments in vision (hierarchically constructed letters) and audition (hierarchically constructed melodies) as well as a pitch adjustment test measuring absolute pitch proficiency were conducted in 31 absolute pitch and 33 relative pitch professional musicians. Analyses revealed inconsistent group differences among reaction time, total of correct trials and speed-accuracy-composite-scores of experimental conditions (local vs. global, and congruent vs. incongruent stimuli). Furthermore, amounts of interference of global form on judgments of local elements and vice versa were calculated. Interestingly, reduced global-to-local interference in audition was associated with greater absolute pitch ability and in vision with higher autistic traits. Results are partially in line with the idea of a detail-oriented cognitive style in absolute pitch musicians. The inconsistency of the results might be due to limitations of global-to-local paradigms in measuring cognitive style and due to heterogeneity of absolute pitch possessors. In summary, this study provides further evidence for a multifaceted pattern of various and potentially interacting factors on the acquisition of absolute pitch.

Auditory local-global temporal processing: Evidence for perceptual reorganization with musical expertise

“…Yet, while proper musical training might strongly develop such analytical abilities, it might not constitute a necessary condition; futures studies will have to pinpoint which specific mechanisms underlie this re-organization. Interestingly, this trend toward a local-advantage for musicians is comparable to results obtained with ASDs who also exhibit enhanced analytic auditory capacities (Bouvet et al, 2014); a link between the underlying localglobal processing reorganization of musicians and ASDs has even been recently advanced (Wenhart & Altenmüller, 2019).…”

“…Our study is a first step toward a better understanding of the local-global processing perceptual reorganization in musicians that opens many perspectives for future works. The methodological development of this study responds to the need of the community for new paradigms "to overcome restrictions of classical global-to-local paradigms" (Wenhart & Altenmüller, 2019). It could thus be valuable for future electrophysiological or neuroimaging studies to re-examine the hemispheric specialization and, more generally, the neural local-global processing organization in different population (Bever & Chiarello, 1974;Peretz, 1990), with a control on both sensitivity and response strategy.…”

“…3A), as supported by a significant difference between the two groups (F(1, 28) = 70.9, p<0.001). Following previous studies (Bouvet et al, 2011;Ouimet et al, 2012;Wenhart & Altenmüller, 2019), a "global advantage" refers to a performance gain in the global task compared to the local task (performances in conditions L and G being averaged). Similarly, a "local advantage" refers to a performance gain in the local task compared to the global task.…”

“…Black & Stevenson (2017) already pointed out that, with such auditory stimuli, "participants received relevant decisionmaking information at different times on global and local trials (i.e., global trials at the fourth note and local trials at the second note)" (p. 14). Although latest studies redefined reaction times for these two conditions with respect to the moment when information becomes available (2 nd note for the local information, 4 th note for the global information) in an attempt to address this issue, they did not control for listeners strategies; some listeners may listen to the whole sequence, before deciding whether a local or a global change was presented, whereas other listeners may decide as soon as the 4 th note is heard (Wenhart & Altenmüller, 2019). Such strategies might have biased any musicians vs. non-musicians comparison.…”

Auditory local–global temporal processing: evidence for perceptual reorganization with musical expertise

“…Black et al 10 already pointed out that, with such auditory stimuli, "participants received relevant decision-making information at different times on global and local trials (i.e., global trials at the fourth note and local trials at the second note)" (p. 14). Although latest studies redefined reaction times for these two conditions with respect to the moment when information becomes available (2nd note for the local information, 4th note for the global information) in an attempt to address this issue, they did not control for listeners strategies; some listeners may listen to the whole sequence, before deciding whether a local or a global change was presented, whereas other listeners may decide as soon as the 4th note is heard 19 . Such strategies might have biased any musicians vs. non-musicians comparison.…”