Trevor Henthorn

Absolute pitch among American and Chinese conservatory students: Prevalence differences, and evidence for a speech-related critical perioda)

Absolute pitch is extremely rare in the U.S. and Europe; this rarity has so far been unexplained. This paper reports a substantial difference in the prevalence of absolute pitch in two normal populations, in a large-scale study employing an on-site test, without self-selection from within the target populations. Music conservatory students in the U.S. and China were tested. The Chinese subjects spoke the tone language Mandarin, in which pitch is involved in conveying the meaning of words. The American subjects were nontone language speakers. The earlier the age of onset of musical training, the greater the prevalence of absolute pitch; however, its prevalence was far greater among the Chinese than the U.S. students for each level of age of onset of musical training. The findings suggest that the potential for acquiring absolute pitch may be universal, and may be realized by enabling infants to associate pitches with verbal labels during the critical period for acquisition of features of their native language.

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 is demonstrated in speakers of tone languages

In two experiments, Vietnamese and Mandarin speakers manifested a precise form of absolute pitch in reading lists of words. In one experiment, seven Vietnamese speakers read out a list of ten words twice, on two separate days. The average pitch of each word was determined by computer analysis, and for each speaker comparisons were made between the average pitches produced by the same word on different days. Remarkable correspondences were obtained: For most speakers, the signed pitch difference, averaged across words, was well within a semitone. In another experiment, 15 Mandarin speakers read out a list of 12 words twice within a session, with the 2 readings separated by roughly 20 s; and in 2 sessions which were held on different days. Again, comparing across sessions, for most speakers the signed pitch difference, averaged across words, was well within a semitone. Furthermore, the differences were no greater when the pitches were compared across sessions than within sessions. These findings demonstrate...

The pitch levels of female speech in two Chinese villages

The pitch levels of female speech in two villages situated in a relatively remote area of China were compared. The dialects spoken in the two villages are similar to Standard Mandarin, and all subjects had learned to read and speak Standard Mandarin at school. Subjects read out a passage of roughly 3.25 min in Standard Mandarin, and pitch values were obtained at 5-ms intervals. The overall pitch levels in the two villages differed significantly, supporting the conjecture that pitch levels of speech are influenced by a mental representation acquired through long-term exposure to the speech of others.

Ethnicity versus early environment: Comment on ‘Early Childhood Music Education and Predisposition to Absolute Pitch: Teasing Apart Genes and Environment’ by Peter K. Gregersen, Elena Kowalsky, Nina Kohn, and Elizabeth West Marvin [2000]†

Absolute pitch (AP)—the ability to identify or produce a musical note in the absence of a reference note—is very rare and is the subject of considerable speculation [cf. Ward, 1999]. In a widely quoted study, Gregersen et al. [2000] reported findings indicating a higher prevalence of AP among Asians than Caucasians, and they argued from their findings that ethnicity is a predisposing factor in the acquisition of AP. We here present a reanalysis of the data obtained by Gregersen et al., and argue that their conclusion concerning ethnicity is unwarranted. Instead, taking those respondents with early childhood in the North American Continent, we found no significant difference between East Asians and Caucasians in the prevalence of AP. Further, for East Asians with early childhood in East Asia, the prevalence of AP was significantly higher than for both East Asians and Caucasians with early childhood in the North American Continent. This pattern of results argues strongly that some environmental factor is responsible for the differences in the prevalence of AP that were obtained in their survey. Gregersen et al. [2000] surveyed music students who were enrolled in music theory classes in the United States. They state: ‘There was a marked increase in the rate of AP among Asian students (42/80; 47.5%) compared with Caucasian students (75/834; 9.0%). The relatively higher rate in Asians was present among all the major ethnic subgroups— Japanese (26% APþ), Korean (37% APþ), and Chinese (65% APþ). . .’ adding that there was no significant difference between the Asian and Caucasian respondents in prevalence of early musical training. Their report has been widely interpreted as demonstrating a higher prevalence of AP among individuals of Asian descent, based on genetic factors. For example, Zatorre [2003], citing this report as evidence, wrote: ‘The second hint of a genetic factor is that AP may be differentially distributed across different human populations, with persons of Asian descent, for example, having a much greater incidence of AP than those of other backgrounds. . . the higher incidence has been reported among Asian-Americans who often speak only English.’ However, Gregersen et al. omitted to state that the large majority of the Asian respondents had designated an Asian country as their ‘country of early music education,’ and so had presumably spent their

N-CANDA data integration: anatomy of an asynchronous infrastructure for multi-site, multi-instrument longitudinal data capture

The infrastructure for data collection implemented by the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (N-CANDA) for data collection comprises several innovative features: (a) secure, asynchronous transfer and persistent storage of collected data via a revision control system; (b) two-stage import into a longitudinal database; and (c) use of a script-controlled web browser for data retrieval from a third-party, web-based neuropsychological test battery. The asynchronous operation of data transmission and import is of particular benefit, as it has allowed the consortium sites to begin data collection before the receiving database infrastructure had been deployed. Records were collected within 86 days of funding, 35 days after finalizing the collected instruments. Final instruments were added to the database import 225 days after instrument selection, with up to 173 records already collected at that time. Thus, the concepts implemented in N-CANDA’s data collection system helped reduce project start-up time by several months.

The speech‐to‐song illusion.

This paper reports the first formal investigation of a surprising illusion: A particular spoken phrase is made to be heard convincingly as sung rather than spoken, simply by repeating it several times over. Three groups of 18 subjects each listened to the spoken phrase repeated ten times, and they judged after each repetition whether, and how strongly, they heard the phrase as spoken or as sung. For all groups, the first and last repetitions were identical. For the first group, the intervening repetitions were also identical. For the second group, the intervening repetitions were transposed upward and downward slightly (by 2/3 semitone and 1 1/3 semitone), so that the pitches differed but the pitch relationships were preserved. For the third group, the intervening repetitions consisted of the untransposed syllables presented in jumbled orders. Comparing the first with the last repetition, a clear and highly significant transition from perceived speech to perceived song occurred when the intervening repeti...

The glissando illusion and handedness

This article reports the first study of the glissando illusion, which was created and published as a sound demonstration by Deutsch [Deutsch, D. (1995). Musical illusions and paradoxes. La Jolla: Philomel Records (compact disc)]. To experience the illusion, each subject was seated in front of two stereophonically separated loudspeakers, with one to his left and the other to his right. A sound pattern was presented that consisted of a synthesized oboe tone of constant pitch, together with a sine wave whose pitch repeatedly glided up and down (the glissando). These two components alternated continuously between the loudspeakers such that when the oboe tone emanated from the loudspeaker on the left, the glissando emanated from the loudspeaker on the right; and vice versa. The oboe tone was perceived correctly as switching between loudspeakers; however, the segments of the glissando appeared to be joined together seamlessly, such that a single, continuous tone was heard, which appeared to be moving slowly around in space in accordance with its pitch motion. Right-handers (n=22) tended strongly to hear the glissando move between left and right, and also between low and high in space, as its pitch moved between low and high. More specifically, it was frequently heard as tracing an elliptical path aligned diagonally between a position low and to the left when its pitch was lowest, and high and to the right when its pitch was highest. Non-right-handers (n=42) perceived the illusion in statistically different ways. The handedness correlates and other implications of the glissando illusion are discussed.

Tone language and absolute pitch: Prevalence among American and Chinese conservatory students

Absolute pitch, defined as the ability to name or produce a musical note of particular pitch without benefit of a reference note, is extremely rare in the U.S. and Europe; this rarity has so far been unexplained. This paper reports a substantial difference in the prevalence of absolute pitch in two normal populations, in a large‐scale study using direct, on‐site testing, without self‐selection from within the target populations. The subjects were students in two major music conservatories in the U.S. and in China. The Chinese subjects (n=88) all spoke the tone language Mandarin, in which pitch is used to convey the meaning of words. The American subjects (n=115) were all nontone language speakers. For both groups, the earlier the age of onset of musical training, the greater the prevalence of absolute pitch; however, its prevalence was far greater among the Chinese than the U.S. group, for each level of age of onset of musical training. The findings indicate that the potential for acquiring absolute pitch...

The glissando illusion: A spatial illusory contour in hearing

In the glissando illusion (originally demonstrated by Deutsch, 1995) a synthesized oboe tone of constant pitch is played together with a sine wave whose pitch repeatedly glides up and down. These are presented through two loudspeakers, placed to the listeners left and right, and are repeatedly switched between loudspeakers, such that when the oboe tone emanates from one, a segment of the sine wave emanates from the other. The oboe tone is perceived correctly as switching between loudspeakers; however the segments of the sine wave appear to be joined together seamlessly, such that a single, continuous tone is heard, which appears to emanate from a source that moves slowly around in space in accordance with its pitch motion. In the present experiment, righthanders (n=22) tended strongly to hear the glissando move between left and right, and also between low and high in space, as its pitch moved between low and high. It was therefore frequently heard as tracing an elliptical path aligned diagonally between a position low and to the left when its pitch was lowest, and high and to the right when its pitch was highest. Nonrighthanders (n=42) perceived the illusion in statistically different ways.