The dogs were first trained to recognize solfege syllables. By playing the correct note on the keyboard the dogs were rewarded with food. Later the person carrying out the tests played a pitch on the ocarina in order to see if the dogs could find the note based upon pitch instead of a verbal solfege command. Surprisingly the dogs immediately understood and were able to find the notes. The dogs were also able to mimic basic tunes played on the ocarina.
"Wolves are known to have absolute pitch. They are able to recognize their pack mates by their individual vocalizations. Pavlov's students showed that dogs also possess absolute pitch."
Gives new meaning to the movie, "Beethoven."
ReplyDeleteGives new meaning to the movie, "Beethoven."
ReplyDeleteI think that Pavlov's students only showed that dogs can be conditioned to react to an absolute pitch, not that they normally recognize absolute pitches. From what I've read, though, it seems that recognizing relative pitch is rare in non-human animals -- even monkeys seem to only recognize transposed melodies when the transposition is by a whole octave.
ReplyDeletePerfect Pitch is being able to identify a musical note without a reference note. Basically, you can tell what any sound is in the world and classify it into the seven notes. Soon you will hear car horns, clanging cans, or even laughter as musical notes.
ReplyDeletedoes anyone know who this women is? i would be interested to read more about her.
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