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Tonal Perception Thresholds and Pitch
Identification by Absolute Pitch Possessors
Dr. Scott D. Lipscomb1
Dr. Janina Fyk2
1The University of Texas at San Antonio
and Northwestern University (Fall 2001)
2Zielona Gora, Poland
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Everything is Relative
“Father had absolute pitch,” as men say. But it seemed to disturb him;
he seemed half ashamed of it. “Everything is relative,” he said,” Nothing but fools and taxes are
absolute.”
—Charles Ives (1969, p. 111)cited in Costall (1985)
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Research Questions1. Using “real” piano tones, what is the
threshold duration required for the consistently accurate identification of pitches by AP Possessors?
2. Is there a relationship between established threshold and frequency?
3. Does Response Time vary in an interpretable manner in relation to either (or both) frequency and/or duration?
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Defining Absolute Pitch (AP)
vs. Relative PitchAP - “The ability to identify the pitch of a musical tone or produce a musical tone at a given pitch without the use of an external reference pitch.” (Takeuchi & Hulse, 1993)
Passive Absolute Pitch (PAP) vs. Active Absolute Pitch (AAP); Kries (1892), Abraham (1901), Köhler (1910), Teplov (1947), Jourdain (1997)
PAP – the ability to recognize & name a heard pitchAAP – the ability to sing (or otherwise produce) the pitch of a given tone
RP – the ability to identify a pitch by identifying the pitch distance between consecutive and/or simultaneous tones in relation to a pitch reference
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The Genesis of AP:Proposed Theories
Innate/genetic – Stumpf (1890), Kries, (1892), Abraham (1901), Revesz (1913), Bachem (1937)
Learned – Meyer (1899), Oakes (1951), Cuddy (1968), Brady (1970)
“imprinting” – Copp (1916) claimed that 80% of young children can be taught to produce Middle C
Unlearning – Abraham (1901), Watt (1917)
Convergence (synergy) – Jeffres (1962), Ward (1963), Baharloo, et al. (1998)
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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AP is Not “All or Nothing”Relative Principal of Disposition (Franklin, 1972, pp. 27-28)
AAP & PAPIncluding special case of timbre dependent AP, e.g., Butler’s (1992) “absolute piano”
Standard note pitch – the ability to remember a select pitchRegional pitch – the ability to roughly assess the frequency range within which the tone liesRelative Pitch
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Varying Accuracy of APMiyazaki’s (1988) Categories
Level of AccuracyPrecise AP (~85-100%)Imprecise AP (~45-85%)Non-AP (0-45%)
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Varying Accuracy of APwhite keys vs. black keys
Miyazaki (1988, 1990), Takehuchi and Hulse (1991)
White keys (“diatonic”) identified at a higher level of accuracy than black keys (“chromatic”)
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Thresholds for AP Identification
Piazza & Giulio (1982, 1983)60 ms @ 50 Hz10 ms @ 1000 Hz
Fyk (1985)9-24 ms @ 110, 220, 440, & 1000 Hz
Vocalize matching pitch
Fyk (1987)6 ms @ 1000 HzTuning tone generator (3 training sessions)
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Research Questions1. Using “real” piano tones, what is the
threshold duration required for the consistently accurate identification of pitches by AP Possessors?
2. Is there a relationship between established threshold and frequency?
3. Does Response Time vary in an interpretable manner in relation to either (or both) frequency and/or duration?
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Alternative Hypotheses1. Threshold unknown for natural instrument
timbres; anticipate duration will need to be longer than previous research suggests
– Time to reach Sustain level of amplitude envelope (ADSR)
– Non-periodic aspects of onset
2. Yes, shorter durations will be required for AP possessors to identify high frequency tones.
Number of cycles that occur
3. Yes, shorter RT for longer tonesMore certainty concerning pitch
Method
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MethodSubjects – 4 highly-trained musicians possessing AP; all were skilled pianistsProcedure:
Familiarize with brief tones (exploratory)Warm-up procedure
12 stimuli2 randomly selected pitches for each duration except 5ms; each pitch class occurred one time
Main Experiment91 stimuli (random presentation order)
13 piano tones (C4 to C5)7 durations (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 ms)
Hear tone, identify, press key, 15 sec delay w/distracter midway … repeat for remaining stimuli
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Stimulus Choice(debate)
Ward & Burns (1982) state that AP stimuli “should not involve extraneous cues” (p. 436); later conclude that “one should use for the study of AP only pure tone stimuli” (p. 438)
Complex stimuli consist of “several pitches”Other research suggests that the complexity of piano tones assist in AP idenfication tasks; Ward (1963), Cuddy (1968), Terhardt & Seewan, (1983)
Ecological validity important to this investigation, so used piano tones
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Stimulus PreparationDigital Recording (16-bit, 44.1 KHz) of Yamaha grand piano in UTSA recital hall
Captured 2.5 to 3 sec. tones from C4 – C5
Identify initial attack (subjective)Locate “0-crossing” closest to 35ms mark, then delete remainder of fileCreate shorter durations by deleting 5 ms from end of file
Once again, using 0-crossing
Example
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Stimulus Example (C4)
Complete Tone
5 ms 10 ms 15 ms 20 ms 25 ms 30 ms 35 ms
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DistracterGliding Tonal Cluster
Purpose is to erase/confuse (Butler & Ward, 1988)
Consisted of:White keys from G3 to G4, pitch shifted downBlack keys from G#3 to F#4, pitch shifted upHeavy modulation
Hear Distracter
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Response MechanismIMR Lab
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Response MechanismIMR Lab
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Response Mechanism“Prepared Keyboard”
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Response Mechanism“Prepared Keyboard”
ASCII code for pressed key saved for later analysis
Results
Results
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Number of Correct Responses
3025
2218
0
10
20
30
Number Correct
S1 S2 S3 S4
Subject
Total Number Correct by Subject(possible = 91 )
By Age(almost)
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Number of Correct Responses
0
5
10
15
20
Nu
mb
er
Co
rre
ct
5 m
s
10 m
s
15 m
s
20 m
s
25 m
s
30 m
s
35 m
s
Note Duration
Total Number Correct by Durationpossible = 48 (12 pitch classes x 4 subjects)
chance = 4
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Number of Correct Responses
02468
1012
Number Correct
C4
C#4 D4
D#4 E4
F4
F#4 G4
G#4 A4
A#4 B4
C5
Pitch Class
Total Number Correct by Pitch Classpossible = 28 (7 durations x 4 subjects)
chance = 4
Black Keysvs.
White Keys
F Penta-tonic
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Mean Error Range (ABS)Mean Error (ABS)
by Pitch Class
0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
8.00
C4
C#4
D4
D#4
E4
F4
F#4
G4
G#4
A4
A#4
B4
C5
Pitch Class
Sem
ito
nes
5 ms
10 ms
15 ms
20 ms
25 ms
30 ms
35 ms
Shorter durations exhibit larger errors
Lower pitches result in larger errors
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Response Time
0500
1000150020002500
3000350040004500
mil
lise
co
nd
s
Tone Duration
Mean Response Time(by Duration)
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Response Time
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
mil
lise
co
nd
s
C4 C#4 D4 D#4 E4 F4 F#4 G4 G#4 A4 A#4 B4 C5
Pitch
Mean Response Time(by Pitch)
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Research Questions Answered
1. Using “real” piano tones, what is the threshold duration required for the consistently accurate identification of pitches by AP Possessors?
• Unable to determine from this study … need to include stimuli with longer durations
2. Is there a relationship between established threshold and frequency?
• Yes … needs further investigation with modified stim set
3. Does Response Time vary in an interpretable manner in relation to either (or both) frequency and/or duration?
• Yes … needs further investigation with modified stim set
August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition
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Future DirectionsLarger NUse pre-test to confirm level of APNecessary to increase durations of natural piano tones to ensure higher level of accuracyEstablish baseline for RT by using “press” commandRethink distracter
Intent to “erase” may have served to confirm tonality; quarter-tone or altered tuning system
Contact Info
Dr. Scott D. LipscombAssociate Professor
Institute for Music ResearchThe University of Texas at San
AntonioNorthwestern University (Fall 2001)
[email protected]://imr.utsa.edu/lipscomb/
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Identify Initial Attack
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Identify Initial Attack(Zoom 1)
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Identify Initial Attack(Zoom 3)
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Identify Initial Attack Return