Date of Award

6-2011

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Neuroscience

First Advisor

Stephen Romero

Language

English

Keywords

pitch, instrument, interaction, voltage, data, naming

Abstract

Itoh, Suwazono, Arao, Miyazaki, and Nakada, (2005) compared relative pitch (RP), with absolute pitch (AP) and found a left posterior-temporal negative Event Related Potential (ERP) at 150ms for pitch listening and pitch naming in AP. The present study tested if AP is due to pitch expertise that is not present in RP by comparing pitch naming with instrument naming. Recordings were performed during instrument naming, instrument listening, pitch naming, and pitch listening tasks. At a negatively deflected ERP (156-228ms) a three-way interaction was found, such that voltage differed between instrument listening and instrument naming tasks, but not between pitch listening and pitch naming. At two positively deflected ERPs (240-340 and 380-440ms), interactions were found, such that voltage differed between pitches and instruments. These data indicated expertise for instrument naming, but not pitch naming in this musically untrained group, which provides hypotheses for future studies with AP and RP.

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