Time Factors in Relative and Absolute Pitch Determination

Error measures of pitch discrimination were obtained as a function of the time lapse between standard and comparison tones. The time interval ranged from one second to one week, establishing a “curve of forgetting.” Half of the subjects possessed absolute pitch. Results indicate that for short time intervals there is no observable difference in pitch discrimination between the two groups of subjects. With longer intervals there is a decided discrepancy, so long as the tone is within the musical range. This discrepancy in time‐error curves is attributed to the shift from relative pitch comparison to chroma identification by those subjects possessing absolute pitch. The lack of discrepancy at the upper border of the musical frequency scale is attributed to chroma fixation. The curves of forgetting are more sigmoidal than straight logarithmic, particularly in the case of absolute pitch.