What the [bleep]? Enhanced absolute pitch memory for a 1000 Hz sine tone

Abstract

Many individuals are able to perceive when the tuning of familiar stimuli, such as popular music recordings, has been altered. This suggests a kind of ubiquitous pitch memory, though it is unclear how this ability differs across individuals with and without absolute pitch (AP) and whether it plays any role in AP. In the present study, we take advantage of a salient single frequency - the 1000Hz sine tone used to censor taboo words in broadcast media - to assess the nature of this kind of pitch memory across individuals with and without AP. We show that non-AP participants are accurate at selecting the correct version of the censor tone among incorrect versions shifted by either one or two semitones, though their accuracy was still below that of an AP population (Experiment 1). This suggests a benefit for AP listeners that could be due to the use of explicit note categories or greater amounts of musical training. However, AP possessors still outperformed all non-AP participants when incorrect versions of the censor tone were shifted within a note category, even when controlling for musical experience (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 demonstrated that AP listeners did not appear to possess a category label for the censor tone that could have helped them differentiate the censor tones used in Experiment 2. Overall, these results suggest that AP possessors may have better pitch memory, even when divorced from pitch labeling (note categories). As such, these results have implications for how AP may develop and be maintained.

On the Perceptual Subprocess of Absolute Pitch

“…While a number of neuroimaging studies reported the possible involvement of several brain regions (Schlaug et al, 1995 ; Keenan et al, 2001 ; Ohnishi et al, 2001 ; Itoh et al, 2005 ; Bermudez et al, 2009 ; Oechslin et al, 2009 ; Wilson et al, 2009 ; Loui et al, 2011 ; Jäncke et al, 2012 ; Dohn et al, 2014 ; Elmer et al, 2015 ), the neural mechanisms of AP remain unclear. Novel studies provide behavioral and neuroimaging evidence (Van Hedger et al, 2013 , 2015a , b , 2016 ; Kim and Knösche, 2016 , 2017 ), questioning previously assumed characteristics of AP behaviors and underlying neural structures and functions. Here, we review the current state of research focusing on the “perceptual subprocess of AP” and discuss its possible neural correlates.…”

“…Firstly, the existence of APM in the general population due to extensive and long-lasting exposure seems undeniable (Levitin, 1994 ; Smith and Schmuckler, 2008 ; Ben-Haim et al, 2014 ; Van Hedger et al, 2016 ), although the observed accuracy is usually not very high. For instance, in a singing task of self-selected familiar songs (Levitin, 1994 ), the mean absolute error (computed from the reported histogram) was around 2 semitones, while the expected mean absolute error (disregarding octave errors) by chance is 3 semitones.…”

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

“…This kind of pitch memory, sometimes referred to as implicit AP, latent AP, or simply pitch memory [44,49,50], appears to be normally distributed in the population and has also been thought to represent a foundation for "genuine" AP (i.e., exceptionally accurate pitch memory may scaffold explicit pitch labeling). Supporting this idea, research has demonstrated that AP possessors have more accurate "implicit" pitch memories compared to musically-matched controls [51], even when judging a non-musical stimulus in which their explicit note labels would not be beneficial [52]. Moreover, this pitch memory may reflect the effectiveness or precision of auditory working memory, given that auditory working memory appears to predict both the accuracy of "implicit" pitch memories for familiar recordings [47] (Van Hedger et al, 2017) as well as the explicit ability to learn AP categories [34].…”

Absolute pitch can be learned by some adults

“…While this approach may be justified in some cases (e.g., to distinguish alternative strategies in note identification), it also may unnecessarily simplify AP and downplay the role of learning and plasticity in AP more generally. For example, many “non-AP” listeners are able to tell when a familiar, pitched stimulus (e.g., dial tone from telephone, censor “bleep” used in media) deviates from its typical absolute pitch, even in situations where the deviation is less than one semitone [48,49]. More recently, “non-AP” listeners were shown to possess an absolute sense of Western intonation (i.e., where the A above middle C is tuned to 440Hz), which was previously thought to be an ability solely afforded by possessing AP [50].…”