Learning fast and accurate absolute pitch judgment in adulthood

Area of Science:

• Auditory Neuroscience
• Music Cognition
• Perceptual Learning

Background:

• Absolute pitch (AP) is traditionally thought to require genetic predisposition and early musical training within a critical period.
• Recent research suggests AP may be learnable in adulthood, but potential confounding factors need investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the learnability of absolute pitch (AP) in adults using a controlled online training program.
• To address concerns about confounding factors in previous adult AP acquisition studies.

Main Methods:

• An 8-week online computerized training program was developed.
• Twelve adult musicians completed over 15,000 training trials.
• Performance was assessed based on pitch naming accuracy and response time.

Main Results:

• Participants learned to identify an average of 7.08 pitches with over 90% accuracy.
• Pitch naming accuracy significantly improved by 128.1%, and error size reduced by 42.7%.
• Improvements generalized partially to untrained timbres.

Conclusions:

• The study provides strong evidence for the learnability of absolute pitch judgment in adulthood.
• These findings suggest AP acquisition is possible beyond the critical period, akin to other cognitive abilities.