Acquisition of absolute pitch: The question of critical periods

Describes an adaptation of the first stages of Y. Oura and K. Eguchi's (1981) technique for training absolute pitch in preschoolers to 8 North American Ss (aged 2 yrs 10 mo to 4 yrs 11 mo) and 4 adults (aged 22-27 yrs). Most children and all adults mastered a transposed chord discrimination task but were less successful in chord identification. In contrast, Oura and Eguchi reported that Japanese children performed well on the latter task. The superior performance of the Japanese children may be attributable in part to a simpler chord training procedure.