Improved Pitch Perception with Training on a Single Tone

Abstract

The present investigation was concerned with whether pitch judgment could be improved through practice. A preliminary study revealed that S's with training in music could judge pitches more accurately (with smaller average error) than subjects with little or no training. If S was a pianist, he named piano tones more accurately than pure tones. It appeared that pitch judgment was related to familiarity with musical tones. Music students who did not possess “absolute pitch” were given systematic training with a pure tone. The essential feature of the method was concentration on identifying a single reference standard—A4 (440 cps). Although other tones were presented, S was required to recognize only A4. 5 sec after each A4 was presented, a light signal came on and remained on while A4 was repeated. Experiment I showed that with practice S's improved their ability to recognize A4 in a random series of tones. Experiment II showed that, following this training, performance on a test in which 10 tones were named had improved significantly over ability prior to training. By comparison, training in which S is required to name each tone and is immediately told the correct response to each was not found to be effective.