Subject: Re: Absolute pitch discussion From: Roy Patterson <rdp1@xxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:55:08 +0100 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>Absolute pitch is a complicated phenomenon. Readers of the auditory list should not be fooled by the seeming simplicity of the ongoing discussion of the past few days. I would recommend balancing the nature views expressed with the interaction of nature and nurture suggested in the paper by Diana Deutsch and collaborators in JASA last year. The reference and abstract are pasted in below. Regards Roy P Martin Braun wrote: > You mean, why do so few people develop a cognitive version of absolute > pitch? Well, there are many who are waiting for the answer. Just two days > ago there appeared a large-scale survey in PNAS. Perhaps the most > compelling > new result is the clear bimodal distribution of the trait. Either people > have it, or they do not have it, with very little in between. This > indicates > the possibility of a relatively simple genetic origin of the trait, which > means that the answer may not be too far down the road. > > http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0703868104v1 Absolute pitch among American and Chinese conservatory students: Prevalence differences, and evidence for a speech-related critical period (L)a) Diana Deutschb_ Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 Trevor Henthorn Department of Music, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 Elizabeth Marvin Department of Music Theory, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York 14604 HongShuai Xu College of Music, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 10037, China _Received 12 September 2005; revised 20 November 2005; accepted 21 November 2005_ 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. © 2006 Acoustical Society of America. _DOI: 10.1121/1.2151799_ PACS number_s_: 43.75.Cd _NHF_ Pages: 719–722 > > > Martin > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Martin Braun > Neuroscience of Music > S-671 95 Klässbol > Sweden > web site: http://w1.570.telia.com/~u57011259/index.htm > > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Austin" > <kevin.austin@xxxxxxxx> > To: <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx> > Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 9:37 AM > Subject: Absolute pitch development > > >> Thank you. And the question for me follows as to why so few people >> develop >> absolute pitch if the (mapping) structure exists and is used. >> >> Best >> >> Kevin > -- * ** *** * ** *** * ** *** * ** *** * ** *** * Roy D. Patterson Centre for the Neural Basis of Hearing Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience University of Cambridge Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EG http://www.pdn.cam.ac.uk/cnbh/ phone: +44 (1223) 333819 office fax: +44 (1223) 333840 department email rdp1@xxxxxxxx or roy.patterson@xxxxxxxx