Absolute pitch can be learned by some adults

Abstract

Absolute pitch (AP), the rare ability to name any musical note without the aid of a reference note, is thought to depend on an early critical period of development. Although recent research has shown that adults can improve AP performance in a single training session, the best learners still did not achieve note classification levels comparable to performance of a typical, “genuine” AP possessor. Here, we demonstrate that these “genuine” levels of AP performance can be achieved within eight weeks of training for at least some adults, with the best learner passing all measures of AP ability after training and retaining this knowledge for at least four months after training. Alternative explanations of these positive results, such as improving accuracy through adopting a slower, relative pitch strategy, are not supported based on joint analyses of response time and accuracy. The results also did not appear to be driven by extreme familiarity with a single instrument or octave range, as the post-training AP assessments used eight different timbres and spanned over seven octaves. Yet, it is also important to note that a majority of the participants only exhibited modest improvements in performance, suggesting that adult AP learning is difficult and that near-perfect levels of AP may only be achievable by subset of adults. Overall, these results demonstrate that explicit perceptual training in some adults can lead to AP performance that is behaviorally indistinguishable from AP that manifests within a critical period of development. Implications for theories of AP acquisition are discussed.

A Theory of Instrument-Specific Absolute Pitch

“…Oboist 1 began playing oboe at age 10, while Oboist 2 began at age 12. This small-scale study does not offer sufficient information to investigate whether a critical period exists for ISAP as has been argued for global AP (Deutsch et al, 2006;Gervain et al, 2013;though see Wong et al, 2019, andVan Hedger et al, 2019, for evidence of AP acquisition in adulthood).…”

Revisiting discrete versus continuous models of human behavior: The case of absolute pitch

“…The stark dichotomy proposed in the case of AP-which is at least tacitly endorsed in AP research through the paradigmatic contrast of "AP" and "non-AP" groups as representative categories-has shaped the kinds of questions and results that have been reported. For example, studies examining the extent to which AP can be explicitly trained have generally supported the idea that AP performance can be improved in both children [31] and adults [32][33][34][35] to varying degrees. Yet, these demonstrable performance improvements are not seriously considered in the context of "genuine" AP ability-particularly among adults-given the discrete framing of AP in combination with critical period theories of AP development.…”

“…A second possibility is (non-musical) auditory memory. For example, auditory working memory (WM) has been positively associated with the explicit learning of AP categories [34], with some high WM "pseudo" AP individuals demonstrating "genuine" AP levels of performance after eight weeks of training [35]. Furthermore, "genuine" AP possessors appear to have a larger auditory (but not visual) digit span compared to musically matched controls [59], though it is unclear how intermediate AP performers would compare to these conventional AP and non-AP groups.…”

Experiential and Cognitive Predictors of Sight-Singing Performance in Music Higher Education

“…Many authors suggest there could be a sensitive period for AP acquisition (e.g., Deutsch et al, 2004 , 2009 ; Miyazaki et al, 2012 ). Even if adults can acquire AP to some extent (e.g., Van Hedger et al, 2019 ; Wong et al, 2020 ), it is still plausible that musicians who began their training sooner might develop better perceptual skills, including but not limited to AP.…”