338 
IOWA. ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
WOMEN. 
Fundamental 4.2 1.8 57 2.3 45 
Third 5.2 1.9 63 3.8 27 
Fifth 5.9 2.3 61 4.2 30 
Octave 6.0 3.4 43 3.5 44 
The records show that the natural tendency of the women 
was to sing sharp throughout. The men sang the intervals 
sharp but the fundamental flat. Very few persons sing in true 
pitch. The reason for this is that the ear is not keen enough 
to detect small errors in pitch and to act as a check in accur- 
acy of singing. This was very evident in the first series where 
no information was given the observer in regard to his errors. 
In this series the observers sang in their usual manner. Al- 
though they all sang sharps or flat, they were apparently satis- 
fied with their singing, for they made no attempt to correct 
themselves. Hence we find that no improvement was made in 
this series and the variation in the average error was small. 
In the second series the errors were proportionally much 
smaller than those in the first. This clearly indicates that ac- 
curate checking of errors in pitch enhances the ability to strike 
a tone and to sing an interval. The decrease in error was so 
pronounced in the first test that there was very little improve- 
ment made during the rest of the series. 
The errors in the third series were somewhat larger than 
those of the second but smaller than those of the first. This is 
significant, for it indicates that there was a transfer of gain 
from the training series to the final unaided series ; or, in other 
words, voluntary control had been developed through accur- 
ate checking of errors. 
This proves quite conclusively that training with accurate 
checking of errors develops accuracy of pitch in singing. What 
the exact nature of the development is, may be difficult to ex- 
plain, but it is probably in the form of new tonal concepts, 
better muscle control, keener discriminative power, increased 
confidence, and ability to eliminate disturbing factors. 
Psychology Laboratory, 
State University op Iowa. 
