Developmental increase in the duration of memory for tone pitch.

Examined developmental change in the duration of memory for tone pitch. In Experiment 1, the persistence of memory for pitch was examined with a 2-tone comparison task in children 6–7 and 10–12 years old and in adults. Because pitch perception differences could contaminate the measure of memory, the frequency difference between tones was adjusted for each S until a criterion level of performance was reached. In a subsequent test phase, the resulting frequency difference was maintained but the time between tones was varied. Performance deteriorated across the intertone interval more quickly in younger than in older Ss. Exp 2 demonstrated that the developmental difference in pitch memory persistence is unlikely to be based on the development of strategic processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)