![]() ![]() Source: University of Chicago, Jann Ingmire However, the current set of studies cannot directly address whether this adult-acquired absolute pitch ability is comparable to the performance of “true” perfect pitch. Third, we show that this training lasts for months.”Īccording to Nusbaum, the findings suggest that adults can acquire absolute pitch even without early exposure to pitches and musical labels. Second, we show that this ability is predicted by auditory working memory. “First, in contrast to previous studies, we are able to establish significant absolute pitch training in adults without drugs. “We demonstrate three important findings in this paper,” said Nusbaum. Testing determined that the training had made a difference in helping them advance towards acquiring absolute pitch. ![]() Participants were trained on 12 piano notes repetitively and received both visual and auditory feedback on their responses. The second UChicago experiment involved 30 participants, and was similar to the first one in that it required the participants to identify notes heard through headphones. When the researchers retested some of the study participants a few months after training, they found that the participants had retained most of their ability to identify notes with absolute pitch. ![]() According to the researchers, participants showed significant improvements in note identification after training. Another part of the experiment involved training, whereby participants listened to and classified 180 piano notes and then received immediate feedback on whether they had selected the correct label for the note. Another part of the experiment involved testing participants after they heard an isolated piano note, and then they were asked to identify it by its musical note name or label (eg, C or F-sharp). They were then asked to try to recreate the originally heard target note. ![]() The student participants first listened to notes sampled from real musical instruments through studio headphones, the researchers report. None of the participants had absolute pitch, and all had variable amounts of music experience. The first experiment at UChicago, in which 17 students participated, involved both listening and training. The study was reportedly conducted in two experiments, and did not involve any drugs, as other studies on absolute pitch have done. “It’s an ability that is teachable, and it appears to depend on a general cognitive ability of holding sounds in one’s mind.”Īccording to Nusbaum, the new study shows that people without absolute pitch have the ability to learn notes quickly as well. “This is the first significant demonstration that the ability to identify notes by hearing them may well be something that individuals can be trained to do,” said Howard Nusbaum, PhD, professor of psychology, UChicago. This study builds on previous work by the same research team, and shows that people with absolute pitch can be “retuned” in about 45 minutes of listening, demonstrating that absolute pitch is not so absolute. Howard Nusbaum, PhD, University of ChicagoĪs described in a Jarticle in Psychological Science, and also in an article published in a July 2015 edition of the journal Cognition, the UChicago research team tested how much an individual’s general auditory working memory capacity can predict the success of acquiring absolute pitch. ![]()
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