Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to effortlessly identify or produce pitches without reference. However, behavioral research has shown that pitch perception and identification in certain timbres are more difficult for AP possessors. In this study, we investigate whether pitch identification and labeling in different timbres (piano and voice) would require different amounts of cognitive resource allocation. We measured accuracy, response time, and pupillary responses of 18 musicians with varying degrees of AP while performing a pitch identification test. We also examined whether behavioral and psychophysiological responses were related to aspects of musical experience, such as the age of onset of musical training, daily hours of practice, and years of musical training. Behavioral results revealed significantly longer response time for vocal tones compared to piano tones. However, there was no difference in accuracy when comparing pitch labeling in piano and vocal tones. On the psychophysiological level, pupillary responses were significantly different across timbre conditions, with larger pupil dilation for vocal tones than piano tones. We also observed an effect of key color (whether the tones corresponded to diatonic or chromatic tones in a C major scale) on pupil dilation, with greater dilation for pitches corresponding to black keys compared to white keys. These findings expand the current knowledge regarding how pitches in different timbres are processed by musicians with varying degrees of AP and open new avenues for the investigation of potentially different cognitive mechanisms involved in the processing of the human voice and musical timbres by AP possessors.

绝对音高 (AP) 是无需参考即可轻松识别或产生音高的能力。然而，行为研究表明，某些音色的音高感知和识别对于 AP 拥有者来说更加困难。在这项研究中，我们调查了不同音色（钢琴和人声）的音高识别和标记是否需要不同数量的认知资源分配。我们在进行音高识别测试时测量了 18 位 AP 程度不同的音乐家的准确度、响应时间和瞳孔反应。我们还检查了行为和心理生理反应是否与音乐体验的各个方面有关，例如音乐训练的开始年龄、每日练习时间和音乐训练年限。行为结果显示，与钢琴音调相比，人声音调的响应时间明显更长。然而，在比较钢琴和人声中的音高标记时，准确性没有差异。在心理生理水平上，瞳孔反应在不同音色条件下存在显着差异，人声比钢琴音的瞳孔扩大更大。我们还观察到键色（无论音调对应于 C 大调音阶中的全音阶还是半音阶）对瞳孔扩张的影响，与白键相比，对应于黑键的音高具有更大的扩张。