Experimental Investigation of Absolute Pitch

ABSOLUTE PITCH IS DEFINED here as the ability to identify and name the pitch of a musical note from its sound alone, without reference to any other note which has been previously sounded. Many theories have been advanced to provide an explanation of the trait, but writers have generally fallen into two groups: 1. Those with a phenomenalistic attitude, who have attributed possession of the gift to some hereditary factor. 2. Those who, particularly in more recent years, believe that it is dependent upon behavior and learning. Some of the theories that fall in the former group have been based on the assumption of a gift of hearing in the absolute pitch subject. There is nothing, however, in any of the theories of hearing that have received serious support which could provide any explanation of absolute pitch; supporters of hearing theory for the trait have been unable to give an account of the mechanism of judgment. They have similarly provided no satisfactory explanation as to why the one particular point on the continuum of pitch that has been arbitrarily selected by man in the recent past for his musical purposes should have any more significance for an inborn gift of hearing than any other. Another version of the hearing theory is that the possessor of absolute pitch has a superior sensitivity to the quality of a musical note. Again there is difiiculty in describing the precise mechanism of this sensitivity, coupled with the problem of accounting for the way in which the brain might deal with the superior signal, or remember pitch from it. The behaviorist camp has likewise presented several different arguments, including imprinting (6), vocal practice (5), and even that the trait does not exist at all, but is the tail end of pitch discrimination ability (8). No explanation has been offered, however, as to the origins of the behavior on which the trait depends, and writers have tended to embark instead on a dispute as to whether or not it is capable o£ development by training. The work re-ported here is part of a more extended study of the foundations on which previous theories have been based, and of the etiology of musical behavior; it hopes to trace, from a developmental point of view, the growth of perceptive activity and to determine the true nature of absolute pitch.