Absolute pitch: self-reference and human memory

A number of recent articles have demonstrated the existence of widely held misperceptions and misunderstandings about the nature of "absolute pitch." Fundamentally, absolute pitch is a cognitive ability that relies on self-referencing (to an internalized pitch template), and a highly developed coding mechanism that links verbal labels with abstract representations of perceptual input. Many researchers in genetics, cybernetics, and other fields (e.g. Baharloo, et al., 1998; Drayna, 1998) labor under the misconception that absolute pitch involves more highly developed perceptual mechanisms, whereas the preponderance of evidence is that absolute pitch ability is an ability of long term memory and linguistic coding (Levitin, 1996). Further, many equate "absolute pitch" with "perfect pitch" whereas in fact, absolute pitch possessors do not perceive pitch any better than non-absolute pitch possessors. In this paper, I will review what is known about absolute pitch, correct common and pervasive misconceptions, and present new data on the nature of absolute pitch from our psychoacoustics laboratory. I also discuss why absolute pitch is of interest to cognitive psychologists, philosophers of mind, linguists, and cyberneticists, in terms of what the ability reveals about the processing, coding, and memory functions of human beings. Finally, I propose the first arguments toward a coherent theory of absolute pitch ability.