Publication: Octave bias in an absolute pitch identification task
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Date
2014
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Abstract
Octave errors are common within musicians, even among
absolute pitch possessors. Overall, evidence shows pitch class
and octave to be perceived in a different way, even if they are
highly connected. We investigated whether pitch class
perception, in an absolute pitch identification task, can be
influenced by the octave context, examined among two
consecutive octaves. Participants, all musicians with formal
musical education, showed different response patterns in the
two octaves even if the octave context was explicitly told to
be task irrelevant. The direction of errors revealed a
consistent tendency to underestimate pitch height in the
lowest octave and to overestimate pitch height in the highest
octave. Thus, pitch class identification showed to be biased by
the octave context. These results are discussed in terms of
polarity and pitch enhancement.
Description
Keywords
absolute pitch identification, octave bias, underestimation, overestimation, music psychology
Citation
Giulia Boschetti, Valter Prpic, Matteo De Tommaso, Mauro Murgia, Tiziano Agostini, "Octave bias in an absolute pitch identification task" in: Paolo Bernardis, Carlo Fantoni, Walter Gerbino (eds.) "TSPC2014. Proceedings of the Trieste Symposium on Perception and Cognition, November 27-28", Trieste, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2014, pp. 94-96.