Stroop-like Effects in Pitch Identification Training and Generalization to Untrained Timbres: Evidence from a Contingency Learning Task

Absolute pitch is the ability to automatically identify and name the pitches of tones without the help of a reference tone. Contrary to the common idea that absolute pitch is almost impossible to acquire after a critical period, some research suggests possible improvements in pitch identification in adulthood. Recently, using a simple incidental contingency learning approach, rapid and robust learning of associations between pitches and note names was observed. In the current work, we explored the item specificity of this learning. In our new task, we used three types of instrument tones (i.e., three timbres). For two timbres, contingencies between tones and notes names were directly manipulated. We then tested whether learning transferred (generalized) to tones from a third timbre, for which contingencies were not directly manipulated. Our results indicate clear automatic response biases in response times due to the learned contingencies that transferred from trained to untrained tones. Explicit identification of tones also increased at post-test for both trained and untrained tones. These results demonstrate that learning is not purely instrument specific and that learning of the pitch class is observed. Our results also shed light on the possible underlying representations that participants learn in our paradigm.