Van Hedger Stephen C, Nusbaum Howard C
Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Center for Practical Wisdom, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Center for Practical Wisdom, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2018 Nov;191:251-260. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.10.007. Epub 2018 Oct 19.
By definition, individuals with absolute pitch (AP) can categorize with near perfect accuracy without a reference pitch. This definition implies a uniformity of performance across people; however, in reality AP is a complex, multidimensional ability, shaped by both early and recent auditory experiences. In the present study we assess whether AP possessors' accuracy for identifying isolated notes is more distributed when judging more challenging instrumental timbres and octaves, as well as whether variability in note categorization could be explained through individual differences in musical expertise, language background, or working memory. In a standard test of AP, all participants performed virtually perfectly. When tested on the challenging notes, performance was more normally distributed. In exploratory analyses, we found (1) lower accuracy among participants who speak a tonal language, (2) less musical expertise among tonal language participants, and (3) a positive relationship between working memory and note performance among tonal language participants that was not present for non-tonal language participants. Taken together, these results highlight the complexity of AP categorization when considered as an auditory skill rather than a native talent. The observation that working memory may be an important in AP categorization under some challenging circumstances is consistent with recent theoretical accounts of how working memory and expertise relate to auditory recognition more broadly.
根据定义，拥有绝对音高（AP）的个体在没有参考音高的情况下能够以近乎完美的准确度进行分类。这一定义意味着人们在表现上具有一致性；然而，实际上绝对音高是一种复杂的、多维度的能力，受到早期和近期听觉体验的影响。在本研究中，我们评估了绝对音高拥有者在判断更具挑战性的乐器音色和音程时，识别孤立音符的准确度是否分布得更分散，以及音符分类的变异性是否可以通过音乐专业知识、语言背景或工作记忆的个体差异来解释。在绝对音高的标准测试中，所有参与者的表现几乎都完美无缺。在对具有挑战性的音符进行测试时，表现的分布更接近正态分布。在探索性分析中，我们发现：（1）说声调语言的参与者准确度较低；（2）声调语言参与者的音乐专业知识较少；（3）声调语言参与者的工作记忆与音符表现之间存在正相关关系，而非声调语言参与者则不存在这种关系。综上所述，这些结果凸显了将绝对音高分类视为一种听觉技能而非天生才能时的复杂性。工作记忆在某些具有挑战性的情况下可能是绝对音高分类中的一个重要因素，这一观察结果与最近关于工作记忆和专业知识如何更广泛地与听觉识别相关的理论观点一致。
