Cognitive control in music: adaptive strategy for relative pitch across the absolute-pitch proficiency continuum

Although absolute pitch (AP) is often celebrated as a rare musical gift, Western tonal music relies on relative pitch (RP), where meaning depends on intervals to the tonic. This contrast furnishes a natural test bed for cognitive control: AP is an automatic, stimulus-bound code, whereas RP requires context-dependent computation. We tested 50 non–music-major students spanning the AP proficiency continuum on a movable-Do solfa-naming task under three tonal contexts of rising difficulty (fixed C major, fixed B major, randomly shifting keys). AP gave an overall advantage, yet error pattern and response time analyses showed systematic strategy switching among AP possessors: (i) AP use in C major, (ii) pitch name transposition in B major, and (iii) interval/chord listening in random keys, with individual differences. Non AP participants relied on RP across conditions. Thus, scale note identification recruits adaptive strategy selection governed by AP proficiency, tonal context, and cognitive load, illustrating cognitive control in a naturalistic musical task and motivating tailored ear training in music education.