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S H Hulse

Publications and source records attributed to S H Hulse.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1993

Absolute pitch.

Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to identify a tone's pitch or to produce a tone at a particular pitch without the use of an external reference pitch. AP exists in varying degrees among people generally described as AP possessors. AP possessors vary not only in the accuracy with which they can identify pitches but also in their ability to produce pitches absolutely and in their ability to identify tones of various timbers and in various pitch registers. AP possessors' memory for pitches is mediated by verbal pitch names; they do not have superior memory for pitches per se. Although the etiology of AP is not yet completely understood, evidence points toward the early-learning theory. This theory states that AP can be learned by anyone during a limited period early in development, up to about age 6, after which a general developmental shift from perceiving individual features to perceiving relations among features makes AP difficult or impossible to acquire.

Aptitude↗
PubMed1993

Perceptual organization of auditory temporal patterns in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris).

The perception of continuously repeating auditory patterns by European starlings was explored in seven experiments. In Experiment 1, 4 starlings learned to discriminate between two continuously repeating, eight-element, auditory patterns. Each eight-element pattern was constructed from different temporal organizations of two elements differing in timbre. In Experiments 2-7, the repeating patterns were transformed in ways designed to identify the starlings' perceptual organization of the patterns. In Experiment 2, the starlings identified patterns beginning with novel starting points. In Experiment 3, discrimination performance was adversely affected by reorganizing the elements in the patterns. In Experiments 4 and 5, the pattern elements were altered. In Experiment 4, the patterns were constructed from two novel elements. In Experiment 5, the temporal location of the two pattern elements was reversed. The transformations of the patterns in Experiments 4 and 5 affected discrimination performance for some, but not all, of the starlings. In Experiments 6 and 7, replacing either of the two elements with silent intervals had no effect on discrimination performance. The results of these experiments identify basic grouping principles that starlings use when they perceive auditory patterns.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Relative pitch perception in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris): further evidence for an elusive phenomenon.

Relative pitch perception in animals has been difficult to demonstrate. This failing is due in part to stimulus sets that make an absolute pitch solution viable. In Experiment 1, starlings failed to acquire a discrimination that could be solved only on the basis of relative pitch. In Experiment 2, starlings were trained on a smaller set of pitch patterns, for which both absolute and relative pitch solutions were available, then tested with three series of unreinforced probe stimuli. Series 1 assessed stimulus control by absolute pitch. In Series 2, absolute pitch cues dictated one response, and relative pitch cues dictated a different response. Results indicate that starlings extract relative pitch from artificial pitch patterns only after acquiring a discrimination that permits both absolute and relative pitch solutions. Results are discussed in terms of the relative salience of absolute and relative pitch.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

A psychophysical measure of pitch discrimination loss resulting from a frequency range constraint in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris).

Earlier research (Hulse & Cynx, 1985) revealed that a number of species of songbirds acquired a pitch discrimination between rising and falling sequences in an arbitrarily defined training range of frequencies, but then failed to generalize the discrimination to new frequency ranges--a frequency range constraint. The two experiments here provide a psychophysical estimate of how pitch discrimination deteriorated in one species as sequences were stepped out from the training range. The gradient showing loss of discrimination was much sharper than would have been anticipated by stimulus generalization or the training procedures, and appeared unaffected by the removal of rising and falling frequency information. The frequency range constraint and its psychophysical properties have implications both for the analysis of birdsong and the study of animal cognition.

Animals↗