Individual differences, type of identification response, and practice in absolute identification of pitch

Abstract

Sixteen tones of the same loudness but of different frequencies (80 to 4,400 Hz) were presented 100 times each for absolute identification by 10 subjects divided into two experimental groups (Groups A and B). Group A was composed of subjects with “good” identification ability (preexperimental median transmission = 2.75 bits), and Group B, of subjects with “poor” identification ability (median = 2.29 bits). Individual and group transmission indices (Fulgosi, KnezoviĆ, & Zarevski, 1983,1984) for the second half of the present experiment were compared, and a difference in favor of the two group indices appeared in both experimental groups. Two indices of the group identification performance (the indirect based on the dominant responses, and the direct based on group decisions) were larger than the median of the individual identification performance (21% and 24% in Group A and 24% and 29% in Group B, respectively). These results show that, even for “good” identifiers of pitch, group indices carry substantially more information than individual ones. Both groups also showed a further substantial increase in the amount of transmitted information during the present experiment.