Summary: Researchers launch a new study to better understand how sensorimotor action and perception are linked, using singing and pitch as a test case.
Source: University at Buffalo.
Breakthrough singing test rapidly measures pitch accuracy
A psychologist at the University at Buffalo is part of a collaborative team of researchers and educators who created a fast, reliable online test to measure singing accuracy.
The Seattle Singing Accuracy Protocol (SSAP) began at a research symposium in the fall of 2013, when a seven-member team committed to designing a concise assessment that uses only the tasks necessary to evaluate pitch accuracy. The result is an efficient tool that produces objective, data-driven results rather than relying on subjective impressions.
Today the SSAP is available as a publicly accessible online resource where participants typically spend about 15 minutes completing a set of imitation and listening exercises that evaluate how accurately they sing target pitches, according to Peter Pfordresher, a professor in UB’s Department of Psychology and an expert in auditory perception.
While some listeners can judge singing quality quickly with a trained ear, that judgment is subjective and can’t be easily used to compare different people or groups in experiments. The SSAP was created to meet the need for a standardized, efficient screening that works for research and for general music education settings.
“Existing measures of singing accuracy can be effective but often take too long—sometimes up to an hour,” Pfordresher explains. “That’s impractical for quick screening or for studies that need many participants. We designed the SSAP to be short, rigorous, and broadly applicable.”
The test is intended for many types of users: singers with various musical backgrounds, music educators, and researchers conducting studies on perception, motor control, and musical learning. It provides a snapshot of pitch accuracy at the time of testing, not a definitive measure of a person’s long-term musical potential.
Pfordresher, who sings as an amateur, has dual interests: improving music education and using singing as a window into basic psychological processes. He studies how imagined sounds are translated into vocal actions—what he calls sensorimotor relationships—and how perception guides motor adjustments in real time.
“Music functions much like language as a form of cultural communication, and both rely on complex brain mechanisms,” he says. “By studying singing, we can learn more about how perception and action interact—how hearing guides movement and how movement updates based on sensory feedback.”
Everyday tasks require continuous updating of action plans based on sensory input. For example, stepping up onto a curb requires perceiving the curb and adjusting the step. Likewise, when a singer drifts off pitch, the brain must adjust the motor plan—sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
From a research perspective, pitch is especially interesting because translating perceived pitch into accurate vocal output is difficult. “Pitch presents unique challenges for sensorimotor translation,” Pfordresher notes. “We can’t easily visualize pitch in the way we see spatial movements, and controlling vocal pitch requires subtle, learned motor adjustments.”
Vocal instructors can often address elements such as timbre and breath support, but correcting pitch errors can be more challenging. According to Pfordresher, pitch is often the hardest technical aspect of singing to diagnose and remedy because it depends on fine sensorimotor control.
Good singing, however, is not defined solely by pitch accuracy. “A notable example is William Hung from American Idol,” Pfordresher says. “Although he became a punchline, his pitch accuracy was actually decent. That shows how other elements—tone, expression, timing—also shape our perception of singing.”
Pfordresher emphasizes that SSAP scores are not meant to be definitive labels. Singing is a learned skill, and research increasingly shows that people can improve with training. The SSAP provides a momentary, objective measure of pitch accuracy that can inform teaching, practice, and research.
“A low score can be a starting point and a motivator to practice; a high score is an achievement to be proud of,” he says. “But a test score doesn’t predict a musical career—it simply describes performance on a specific set of tasks at a specific time.”
Source: Bert Gambini — University at Buffalo
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image credited to University at Buffalo.
University at Buffalo. “Singing Can Provide Understanding of Relationship Between Perceiving and Doing.” NeuroscienceNews, January 31, 2017. Citation information provided for reference.