Accuracy and Consistency of Absolute Pitch

Abstract

The accuracy and consistency of absolute pitch (AP) judgments have been measured on three subjects in two longitudinal studies separated by twenty years. The drifts and cyclical variations observed in the earlier study still persisted, and an investigation of two other subjects, one of whom was first studied forty years ago, suggests that they might undergo similar cyclical variations in their pitch perception. Pitch judgments also varied during the day. The detailed observations of these nonrandom fluctuations have been used to determine a value for the underlying consistency of the AP estimates. When the effects of the daytime variations and longer-term drifts were removed, the values for this consistency, as measured by the standard deviation, were calculated to be 3.1, 3.4, 3.7, 4.4, and 4.5 Hz for the five subjects. When an oscillator was used to produce the estimate, the consistency of the judgments was observed to depend on the accuracy of those judgments.