Van Hedger Stephen C, Heald Shannon L M, Koch Rachelle, Nusbaum Howard C
Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, United States.
Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, United States.
Cognition. 2015 Jul;140:95-110. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.03.012. Epub 2015 Apr 20.
Absolute pitch (AP) is typically defined as the ability to label an isolated tone as a musical note in the absence of a reference tone. At first glance the acquisition of AP note categories seems like a perceptual learning task, since individuals must assign a category label to a stimulus based on a single perceptual dimension (pitch) while ignoring other perceptual dimensions (e.g., loudness, octave, instrument). AP, however, is rarely discussed in terms of domain-general perceptual learning mechanisms. This is because AP is typically assumed to depend on a critical period of development, in which early exposure to pitches and musical labels is thought to be necessary for the development of AP precluding the possibility of adult acquisition of AP. Despite this view of AP, several previous studies have found evidence that absolute pitch category learning is, to an extent, trainable in a post-critical period adult population, even if the performance typically achieved by this population is below the performance of a "true" AP possessor. The current studies attempt to understand the individual differences in learning to categorize notes using absolute pitch cues by testing a specific prediction regarding cognitive capacity related to categorization - to what extent does an individual's general auditory working memory capacity (WMC) predict the success of absolute pitch category acquisition. Since WMC has been shown to predict performance on a wide variety of other perceptual and category learning tasks, we predict that individuals with higher WMC should be better at learning absolute pitch note categories than individuals with lower WMC. Across two studies, we demonstrate that auditory WMC predicts the efficacy of learning absolute pitch note categories. These results suggest that a higher general auditory WMC might underlie the formation of absolute pitch categories for post-critical period adults. Implications for understanding the mechanisms that underlie the phenomenon of AP are also discussed.
绝对音高（AP）通常被定义为在没有参考音的情况下，能够将孤立的音调识别为音符的能力。乍一看，获取绝对音高音符类别似乎是一项知觉学习任务，因为个体必须基于单一的知觉维度（音高）为刺激分配类别标签，同时忽略其他知觉维度（例如，响度、八度、乐器）。然而，绝对音高很少从领域通用的知觉学习机制角度进行讨论。这是因为通常认为绝对音高依赖于一个关键的发展时期，在这个时期，早期接触音高和音乐标签被认为是绝对音高发展所必需的，这排除了成年人获得绝对音高的可能性。尽管有这种关于绝对音高的观点，但之前的几项研究已经发现证据表明，即使这个群体通常达到的表现低于“真正”拥有绝对音高者的表现，但在关键期后的成年人群体中，绝对音高类别学习在一定程度上是可训练的。当前的研究试图通过测试一个关于与分类相关的认知能力的具体预测，来理解使用绝对音高线索对音符进行分类学习中的个体差异——个体的一般听觉工作记忆容量（WMC）在多大程度上能够预测绝对音高类别习得的成功。由于工作记忆容量已被证明可以预测在各种其他知觉和类别学习任务中的表现，我们预测，工作记忆容量较高的个体在学习绝对音高音符类别方面应该比工作记忆容量较低的个体表现更好。在两项研究中，我们证明了听觉工作记忆容量能够预测学习绝对音高音符类别的效果。这些结果表明，较高的一般听觉工作记忆容量可能是关键期后成年人形成绝对音高类别的基础。本文还讨论了对理解绝对音高现象背后机制的启示。
