Sensory and verbal coding strategies in subjects with absolute pitch.

The performance of six absolute‐pitch and six control subjects was examined in three studies involving recognition memory for tone frequency. When the standard and comparison were 1/10 semitone apart, absolute‐pitch subjects reported using a sensory coding strategy and did not differ from the controls in overall performance or rate of forgetting. When the stimulus difference was 3/4 semitone, absolute‐pitch subjects shifted to a verbal coding strategy, and their memory for pitch was significantly better than the controls. With a one‐semitone difference, the absolute‐pitch group showed no significant forgetting over a 15‐sec retention interval filled with interference tones. These findings support the hypothesis that possessors of absolute pitch show superior pitch memory only when they can differentially label the stimuli with musical‐note names.