Mandarin speakers from birth develop perfect pitch at higher rates

Evidence

There seems to be no agreement on how many people have perfect pitch, whether or how it can be learned or acquired, or most significantly even what it is exactly. At the very least, someone with perfect pitch can tell you the note being played on a piano with their eyes closed. They may be able to tell you that the A440 is flat by a quarter of a semitone. There are studies showing that people who speak Mandarin Chinese from birth are much more likely to have perfect pitch, the presumed reason being that the same sounds differing only in pitch have different meanings and training matters. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2168

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why would lexical tone training transfer to absolute pitch naming? The causal claim here is thin (presumed), worth chasing the actual studies.
• SHARE: Send to anyone interested in language-cognition links or music pedagogy.