Kevin Dooley

Absolute pitch among students in an American music conservatory: Association with tone language fluency.

Absolute pitch (AP), the ability to name a musical note in the absence of a reference note, is extremely rare in the U.S. and Europe, and its genesis is unclear. The prevalence of AP was examined among students in an American music conservatory as a function of age of onset of musical training, ethnicity, and fluency in speaking a tone language. Taking those of East Asian ethnicity, the performance level on a test of AP was significantly higher among those who spoke a tone language very fluently compared with those who spoke a tone language fairly fluently and also compared with those who were not fluent in speaking a tone language. The performance level of this last group did not differ significantly from that of Caucasian students who spoke only nontone language. Early onset of musical training was associated with enhanced performance, but this did not interact with the effect of language. Further analyses showed that the results could not be explained by country of early music education. The findings support the hypothesis that the acquisition of AP by tone language speakers involves the same process as occurs in the acquisition of a second tone language.

Absolute pitch correlates with high performance on musical dictation

Absolute pitch (AP)--the ability to name a musical note in the absence of a reference note--is a rare ability whose relevance to musical proficiency has so far been unclear. Sixty trained musicians--thirty who self-reported AP and thirty with equivalent age of onset and duration of musical training--were administered a test for AP and also a musical dictation test not requiring AP. Performance on both types of test were highly correlated (r=.81, p<.001). When subjects were divided into three groups based on their performance on the AP test, highly significant differences between the groups emerged. Those who clearly possessed AP showed remarkably high performance on the musical dictation test, the scores of those without AP varied widely, and the performance of the intermediate group of borderline AP possessors fell between that of clear AP possessors and clear nonpossessors. The findings support the hypothesis that AP is associated with proficiency in performing other musical tasks, and run counter to the claim that it confers a disadvantage in the processing of relative pitch.

Absolute pitch correlates with high performance on interval naming tasks

Absolute pitch, the rare ability to identify or produce a musical tone without a reference tone, has been shown to be advantageous in some musical tasks; however, its relevance in musical contexts primarily involving relative pitch has been questioned. To explore this issue, 36 trained musicians-18 absolute pitch possessors and 18 non-possessors with equivalent age of onset and duration of musical training-were tested on interval naming tasks requiring only relative pitch. The intervals to be named were either ascending or descending with separation ranging from 1 to 12 semitones and equally involved all 12 pitch classes. Three different conditions were employed; these used brief sine waves, piano tones, and piano tones preceded by a V7-I chord cadence so as to establish a tonal context. The possession of absolute pitch was strongly correlated with enhanced performance on all these tests of relative pitch. Furthermore, no evidence was found that this absolute pitch avantage depended on key, interval size, or musical context.

Absolute pitch is associated with a large auditory digit span: A clue to its genesis

Auditory and visual digit span tests were administered to a group of absolute pitch (AP) possessors, and a group of AP nonpossessors matched for age, and for age of onset and duration of musical training. All subjects were speakers of English. The AP possessors substantially and significantly outperformed the nonpossessors on the auditory test, while the two groups did not differ significantly on the visual test. It is conjectured that a large auditory memory span, including memory for speech sounds, facilitates the development of associations between pitches and their verbal labels early in life, so promoting the acquisition of AP.

Significant infrasound levels a previously unrecognized contaminant in landmark motion sickness studies

Airborne Infrasound at any given point can be accurately described as fluctuations or cyclic changes in the local barometric pressure. Variations in a motion sickness test subjects elevation, result in fluctuations in the surrounding barometric pressure by a similar amount to that experienced on a ship in high seas. Cyclic variation in the lateral or linear velocity of a subject in a vehicle or platform in atmospheric air may also be subject to infrasonic pressure fluctuations due to the Bernoulli principle and associated with vortex shedding effects. Calculations presented demonstrate that in at least one landmark study (McCauley et al 1976) test subjects were exposed to infrasonic sound pressure levels in excess of 105 dB at discrete frequencies between 0.063 Hz and 0.7Hz. The infrasonic sound pressure level necessarily present in cyclic motion in free atmospheric air does not appear to have been accounted for as a nausea influencing factor in the McCauley et al (1976) motion sickness studies.

Acoustic interaction as a primary cause of infrasonic spinning mode generation and propagation from wind turbines.

Relatively balanced load and velocity related pressure waves from the rearward facing surface of each rotor blade, are at a frequency of 1 cycle per revolution of the turbine and are phase shifted by 120 degrees from each other. The superposition of these infrasonic waves destructively interfere. This action results in a non-propagating rotor locked mode; however, the shielding (reflecting) effect of the tower as each blade passes, interrupts the balanced destructive interference for a small portion of rotor angle three times per revolution. The momentary un-balance between the destructive interfering waves results in the generation of Tyler-Sofrin spinning mode series, which propagate into the far field. The spinning mode radiation angles, coupled with the low decay rate of infrasound, result in higher far field sound pressure levels than would be predicted for a point source. An analysis approach partially derived from Tyler-Sofrin (1962) is presented. Field microphone data including phase measurements ...

Absolute pitch is correlated with high performance on relative pitch tasks.

Absolute pitch (AP)—the ability to name a musical note without a reference note—has been shown to be associated with an advantage in pitch identification tasks; however, its usefulness in contexts involving relative pitch has so far been unclear. To explore this issue, 36 trained musicians—18 AP possessors and 18 non‐possessors with equivalent age of onset of musical training and duration of musical training—were tested on several different interval naming tasks requiring only relative pitch. AP possession was highly positively correlated with performance on these tasks; r=0.72, p less than 0.001. Furthermore, the advantage of AP possession in performing these tasks was not dependent on musical key, interval size, or musical context. These findings support the hypothesis that AP may be beneficial in performing musical tasks including those that primarily require the processing of relative pitch.

Examination of the predictions versus measurements of an acoustic interaction model for spinning modes, and concurrent low frequency amplitude modulation acoustic signatures from a 3MW wind turbine

A recently presented hypothesis and model relating to the generation of spinning modes from wind turbines, as a direct result of acoustic interaction involving the tower, results in a far field infrasound sound pressure level prediction, which is higher than that predicted by point source method. The model also predicts a significant attenuation of the fundamental blade passing frequency component relative to the second and higher harmonics. The model concurrently predicts a low frequency (~20 Hz), amplitude modulated harmonic series as a side effect of the acoustic interaction on a 1.6 MW 80 m diameter wind turbine. This study examines the model predictions of a 3.0 MW 90 m diameter wind turbine, and compares the predictions to measurements of the low frequency harmonic series and blade passing frequency harmonics at several different distances from the wind turbine.

Approximately 20 Hz plus harmonics amplitude modulated acoustic emissions from a 1.6 MW wind turbine, measurements versus predictions

A recently presented hypothesis and model relating to the generation of spinning modes from wind turbines, as a direct result of acoustic interaction involving the tower, also predicts ~20 Hz plus harmonics low frequency amplitude modulated acoustic emissions as a side effect of the acoustic interaction. The low frequency sound is expected to propagate at measurable amplitudes to the far field (1km to 2 km). Measurements focused on the ~20 Hz amplitude modulated fundamental and harmonics made at different angles relative to the rotor plane at very close range, and at greater distances are presented. The measurements are compared to predictions based on the tower acoustic interaction hypothesis.

Songs, cell phones, absolute pitch: Long-term pitch memory for familiar stimuli

Absolute pitch (AP) is a rare phenomenon as formally defined, but long-term pitch memory appears much more common when tests involve familiar musical material and do not require the use of formally learned pitch labels. It is unclear whether AP possession confers additional advantages to long-term pitch memory in such tasks or merely combines a rare ability to form pitch-label associations with a more general capacity for pitch memory. To test this, 36 trained musicians—18 AP possessors and 18 non-possessors with equivalent age of onset and duration of musical training—were asked to recall and vocalize a familiar song, and their responses were compared with the pitches of the actual recordings; this was repeated with their cell phone ringtones. Both groups were significantly more accurate than chance on the song task, but only the AP possessors performed above chance on the ringtone task. The findings confirm the existence of widespread long-term pitch memory but also point to an AP advantage under some c...