Tonal Perception Thresholds and Pitch Identification by Absolute

Tonal Perception Thresholds and Pitch Identification by Absolute Pitch Possessors Dr. Scott D. Lipscomb 1 Dr. Janina Fyk 2 1 The University of Texas at San Antonio and Northwestern University (Fall 2001) 2 Zielona Gora, Poland August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition

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 2

Research Questions 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? 1. August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 3

Defining Absolute Pitch (AP) vs. Relative Pitch AP - “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 pitch AAP – 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 August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 4

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 5

AP is Not “All or Nothing” Relative Principal of Disposition (Franklin, 1972, pp. 27 -28) AAP & PAP Including special case of timbre dependent AP, e. g. , Butler’s (1992) “absolute piano” Standard note pitch – the ability to remember a select pitch Regional pitch – the ability to roughly assess the frequency range within which the tone lies Relative Pitch August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 6

Varying Accuracy of AP Miyazaki’s (1988) Categories Level of Accuracy Precise AP (~85 -100%) Imprecise AP (~45 -85%) Non-AP (0 -45%) August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 7

Varying Accuracy of AP white 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 8

Thresholds for AP Identification Piazza & Giulio (1982, 1983) 60 ms @ 50 Hz 10 ms @ 1000 Hz Fyk (1985) 9 -24 ms @ 110, 220, 440, & 1000 Hz Vocalize matching pitch Fyk (1987) 6 ms @ 1000 Hz Tuning tone generator (3 training sessions) August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 9

Research Questions 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? 1. August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 11

Alternative Hypotheses 1. 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 tones More certainty concerning pitch August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 12

Method August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition

Method Subjects – 4 highly-trained musicians possessing AP; all were skilled pianists Procedure: Familiarize with brief tones (exploratory) Warm-up procedure 12 stimuli 2 randomly selected pitches for each duration except 5 ms; each pitch class occurred one time Main Experiment 91 stimuli (random presentation order) 13 piano tones (C 4 to C 5) 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 14

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 15

Stimulus Preparation Digital Recording (16 -bit, 44. 1 KHz) of Yamaha grand piano in UTSA recital hall Captured 2. 5 to 3 sec. tones from C 4 – C 5 Identify initial attack (subjective) Example Locate “ 0 -crossing” closest to 35 ms mark, then delete remainder of file Create shorter durations by deleting 5 ms from end of file Once again, using 0 -crossing August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 16

Stimulus Example (C 4) Complete Tone 5 ms 10 ms August 9, 2001 15 ms 20 ms 25 ms Society for Music Perception & Cognition 30 ms 35 ms 17

Distracter Gliding Tonal Cluster Purpose is to erase/confuse Consisted of: (Butler & Ward, 1988) White keys from G 3 to G 4, pitch shifted down Black keys from G#3 to F#4, pitch shifted up Heavy modulation Hear Distracter August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 18

Response Mechanism IMR Lab August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 19

Response Mechanism IMR Lab August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 20

Response Mechanism “Prepared Keyboard” August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 21

Response Mechanism “Prepared Keyboard” ASCII code for pressed key saved for later analysis August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 22

Results August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition

Number of Correct Responses By Age (almost) August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 25

Number of Correct Responses August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 26

Number of Correct Responses Black Keys vs. White Keys F Pentatonic August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 27

Mean Error Range (ABS) Shorter durations exhibit larger errors Lower pitches result in larger errors August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 28

Response Time August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 29

Response Time August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 30

Research Questions Answered Using “real” piano tones, what is the threshold duration required for the consistently accurate identification of pitches by AP Possessors? 1. • Unable to determine from this study … need to include stimuli with longer durations Is there a relationship between established threshold and frequency? 2. • Yes … needs further investigation with modified stim set Does Response Time vary in an interpretable manner in relation to either (or both) frequency and/or duration? 3. • Yes … needs further investigation with modified stim set August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 31

Future Directions Larger N Use pre-test to confirm level of AP Necessary to increase durations of natural piano tones to ensure higher level of accuracy Establish baseline for RT by using “press” command Rethink distracter Intent to “erase” may have served to confirm tonality; quarter-tone or altered tuning system August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition 32

Contact Info Dr. Scott D. Lipscomb Associate Professor Institute for Music Research The University of Texas at San Antonio Northwestern University (Fall 2001) lipscomb@utsa. edu http: //imr. utsa. edu/lipscomb/ August 9, 2001 Society for Music Perception & Cognition