Absolute pitch among American and Chinese conservatory students: Prevalence differences, and evidence for a speech-related critical period

2006 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. 719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Deutsch ◽  
Trevor Henthorn ◽  
Elizabeth Marvin ◽  
HongShuai Xu
Keyword(s):  
Critical Period ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Conservatory Students

scholarly journals Learning the ““Special Note””: Evidence for a Critical Period for Absolute Pitch Acquisition

2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANK A. RUSSO ◽  
DEBORAH L. WINDELL ◽  
LOLA L. CUDDY
Keyword(s):  
Critical Period ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Identification Accuracy ◽  
Single Tone ◽  
The Third

Children (3––6 years old) and adults were trained for 6 weeks to identify a single tone, C5. Test sessions, held at the end of each week, had participants identify C5 within a set of seven alternative tones. By the third week of training, identification accuracy of children 5––6 years old surpassed the accuracies of children 3––4 years old and adults. Combined with an analysis of perceptual strategies, the data provide strong support for a critical period for absolute pitch acquisition. Received July 12, 2003, accepted August 1,2003

scholarly journals Learning the Special Note: Evidence for a critical period for absolute pitch acquisition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank A Russo ◽  
Deborah L Windell ◽  
Lola L Cuddy
Keyword(s):  
Critical Period ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Identification Accuracy ◽  
Single Tone ◽  
The Third

Children (3–6 years old) and adults were trained for 6 weeks to identify a single tone, C5. Test sessions, held at the end of each week, had participants identify C5 within a set of seven alternative tones. By the third week of training, identification accuracy of children 5–6 years old surpassed the accuracies of children 3–4 years old and adults. Combined with an analysis of perceptual strategies, the data provide strong support for a critical period for absolute pitch acquisition.

Absolute Pitch in Williams Syndrome

2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard M. Lenhoff ◽  
Olegario Perales ◽  
Gregory Hickok
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
General Population ◽  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Relative Pitch

Absolute pitch is reported to occur in 1 out of 10,000 persons, usually those trained in music before age 6. We demonstrate that the five individuals we tested, who have Williams syndrome, a condition caused by a microdeletion of about 20 genes in the q11.23 region of one of their two chromosomes number seven, possess near ceiling levels of absolute pitch despite their limited cognitive abilities. With these individuals, we also describe our preliminary findings on relative pitch, transposition, and retention. We discuss the possibilities that (1) the incidence of absolute pitch among individuals with Williams syndrome is higher than that found in the general population and (2) the normal early childhood critical period of absolute pitch acquisition may be extended in individuals with Williams syndrome.

Absolute Pitch, Speech, and Tone Language: Some Experiments and a Proposed Framework

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
DIANA DEUTSCH ◽  
TREVOR HENTHORN ◽  
MARK DOLSON
Keyword(s):  
Critical Period ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Speech Development ◽  
Stable Form ◽  
Lexical Tone ◽  
Critical Periods ◽  
Speech Acquisition ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Long Duration

Absolute pitch is generally considered to reflect a rare musical endowment; however, its characteristics are puzzling and its genesis is unclear. We describe two experiments in which native speakers of tone languages——Mandarin and Vietnamese——were found to display a remarkably precise and stable form of absolute pitch in enunciating words. We further describe a third experiment in which speakers of English displayed less stability on an analogous task. Based on these findings, and considering the related literatures on critical periods in speech development, and the neurological underpinnings of lexical tone, we propose a framework for the genesis of absolute pitch. The framework assumes that absolute pitch originally evolved as a feature of speech, analogous to other features such as vowel quality, and that speakers of tone language naturally acquire this feature during the critical period for speech acquisition. We further propose that the acquisition of absolute pitch by rare individuals who speak an intonation language may be associated with a critical period of unusually long duration, so that it encompasses the age at which the child can take music lessons. We conclude that the potential to acquire absolute pitch is universally present at birth, and that it can be realized by enabling the infant to associate pitches with verbal labels during the critical period for speech acquisition.

scholarly journals Learning the Special Note: Evidence for a critical period for absolute pitch acquisition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank A Russo ◽  
Deborah L Windell ◽  
Lola L Cuddy
Keyword(s):  
Critical Period ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Identification Accuracy ◽  
Single Tone ◽  
The Third

Children (3–6 years old) and adults were trained for 6 weeks to identify a single tone, C5. Test sessions, held at the end of each week, had participants identify C5 within a set of seven alternative tones. By the third week of training, identification accuracy of children 5–6 years old surpassed the accuracies of children 3–4 years old and adults. Combined with an analysis of perceptual strategies, the data provide strong support for a critical period for absolute pitch acquisition.

Tone language and absolute pitch: Prevalence among American and Chinese conservatory students

2004 ◽  
Vol 116 (4) ◽  
pp. 2580-2580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Deutsch ◽  
Trevor Henthorn ◽  
Elizabeth Marvin ◽  
HongShuai Xu
Keyword(s):  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Conservatory Students

scholarly journals Valproate reopens critical-period learning of absolute pitch

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judit Gervain ◽  
Bradley W. Vines ◽  
Lawrence M. Chen ◽  
Rubo J. Seo ◽  
Takao K. Hensch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Period ◽  
Absolute Pitch

The Mystery of Absolute Pitch

2019 ◽  
pp. 82-102
Author(s):  
Diana Deutsch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Genetic Factor ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
The United States ◽  
Musical Note ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Music Lessons ◽  
Brain Circuitry

Chapter 6. discusses absolute pitch (or “perfect pitch”)—the rare ability to name a musical note in the absence of a reference note. It is argued that acquiring absolute pitch requires exposure to certain environmental influences during a critical period early in life. This ability is associated with early musical training—and the earlier the onset of training the stronger the association. The author and her coworkers have found at music conservatories and universities in the United States and China that the earlier students had begun taking music lessons, the greater the probability that they possessed absolute pitch. We also found that the prevalence of absolute pitch is much higher among people who speak a tone language—in which the meaning of a word changes depending on the pitch or pitches in which it is spoken. It is therefore argued that when babies learn to speak a tone language, they automatically associate pitches with words, and so develop absolute pitch for the words they hear. Therefore when they begin taking music lessons, their brain circuitry for absolute pitch is already in place. Speakers of non-tone languages are therefore at a disadvantage compared with tone-language speakers for acquiring absolute pitch. Further work by the author and colleagues also point to a genetic factor in acquiring absolute pitch. Also discussed are the neurological correlates of absolute pitch, and its presence in some autistic savants, and in people who are blind. It also considers the decline of absolute pitch with aging, and distortions in absolute pitch judgment under certain medications.

scholarly journals Is it impossible to acquire absolute pitch in adulthood?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yetta Kwailing Wong ◽  
Kelvin F. H. Lui ◽  
Ken H.M. Yip ◽  
Alan C.-N. Wong
Keyword(s):  
Critical Period ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Continuous Distribution ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Sustained Improvement ◽  
External Reference ◽  
Genetic Makeup

AbstractAbsolute pitch (AP) refers to the rare ability to name the pitch of a tone without external reference. It is widely believed that AP is only for the selected few with rare genetic makeup and early musical training during the critical period. Accordingly, acquiring AP in adulthood is impossible. Previous studies have not offered a strong test of the effect of training because of issues like small sample size and insufficient training. In three experiments, adults learned to name pitches in a computerized and personalized protocol for 12 to 40 hours. They improved considerably, with a continuous distribution of learning progress among them. 14% of the participants (6 out of 43) were able to name twelve pitches at accuracy of 90% or above, comparable to that of ‘AP possessors’ as defined in the literature. In general, AP learning showed classic characteristics of perceptual learning, including generalization of learning dependent on the training stimuli, and sustained improvement for at least one to three months. Overall, the finding that AP continues to be learnable in adulthood calls for reconsidering the role of learning in the occurrence of AP. The finding also pushes the field to pinpoint and explain, if any, the differences between the aspects of AP more trainable in adulthood and the aspects of AP that are potentially exclusive for the few exceptional AP possessors.

The Puzzle of Absolute Pitch

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 200-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Deutsch
Keyword(s):  
Critical Period ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Precise Form ◽  
Music Lessons ◽  
Long Duration ◽  
Verbal Labels

Absolute pitch—the ability to name or produce a note of particular pitch in the absence of a reference note—is generally considered to be extremely rare. However, it has been found that native speakers of two different tone languages—Mandarin and Vietnamese—display a remarkably precise form of absolute pitch in enunciating words. Given these findings, it is proposed that absolute pitch may have evolved as a feature of speech, analogous to other features such as vowel quality. It is also conjectured that tone–language speakers generally acquire this feature during the 1st year of life, in the critical period when infants acquire other features of their native language. For speakers of nontone languages, the acquisition of absolute pitch by rare individuals may be associated with a critical period of unusually long duration, so that it extends to the age at which the child can begin taking music lessons. According to this line of reasoning, the potential for acquiring absolute pitch is universal at birth, and can be realized by giving the infant the opportunity to associate pitches with verbal labels during the 1st year or so of life.

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