Attention
Pitch Pattern Task
Also called: frequency pattern test, pitch pattern sequence test, pitch pattern test, frequency patterns test, frequency pattern sequences, tone pattern sequences, auditory pattern recognition
Measure how well people hear and report the order of high and low tones: three tones through headphones, then the pattern chosen from six buttons, such as High Low High.
4-6 minUntimed
Free to start: 10 free participants per account, then $0.99 per participant for academic research, or any yearly plan. Try it here first, with no account.
- Papers, 2021 to 2025
- 77
- Evidence grade
- B
- Registered clinical studies
- 6
What it measures
Measures how well people hear and report the order of high and low tones. Each trial plays three tones through headphones, each high (1,122 Hz) or low (880 Hz), and participants choose the pattern they heard from six buttons, such as High Low High. The main score is the share of patterns reported in the right order. Needs headphones and normal hearing; results are research measures, not a hearing test.
Constructs
- Auditory pattern perception
- Temporal ordering of sounds
- Pitch perception
Research uses
- Auditory perception research
- Music and hearing research
- Within-study sound comparisons
How the paradigm works
Pitch patterns ask listeners to report the order of high and low tones. Pinheiro and Ptacek (1971) studied how listeners report short tone patterns and reverse them, and the frequency pattern test that grew from that work (Musiek and Pinheiro, 1987) became a common test of auditory pattern perception. Each pattern holds two tones of one pitch and one of the other, so a listener has to hear each tone's pitch and keep the three in order.
More about the paradigm
Set a comfortable volume and take the 6-trial headphone check. A failed check stops the task by default; researchers can continue with a quality flag.
Three tones of 150 ms with 10 ms ramps, 200 ms apart, each low (880 Hz) or high (1,122 Hz), the published test's values, in both ears at the level the participant set.
Press Play, listen once, then choose one of six buttons: High High Low, High Low High, High Low Low, Low High High, Low High Low or Low Low High. There is no time limit.
Each round plays the six patterns once in a seeded order: 5 rounds, 30 scored trials. Researchers can set 3 to 10 rounds (18 to 60 trials).
One practice round of 6 trials, each followed by Correct or the pattern played for 1,000 ms. Scored trials give no feedback.
The primary score is the share of patterns reported in the right order (chance 1 in 6). The share for each pattern, the share of single tones named right in their place, reversals (a pattern reported backward, such as Low High High for High High Low) and the median answer time accompany it. Answers under 100 ms from the buttons opening leave scores.
Scores
- Accuracy%
- Share of usable answers that name the pattern played, all three tones in order.
- Higher means more patterns reported in the right order; chance is 1 in 6
- Accuracy by pattern%
- Share right for each pattern played, keyed by its letters (H high, L low), such as HLH.
- Informational
- Tone accuracy%
- Share of single tones named right in their place, over the three places of every usable answer.
- Higher means more tones named right; chance is 1 in 2
- Reversals%
- On HHL, HLL, LHH and LLH, the share of usable answers that name the pattern backward, such as LHH for HHL.
- Informational; chance is 1 in 6
- Median answer timems
- Median time after the answer buttons open.
- Informational
- Anticipationscount
- Answers under 100 ms, excluded from scores.
- Informational
- Completed trialstrials
- Trials with an answer in the selected run.
- Informational
- Planned trialstrials
- Number planned for the selected scored run.
- Informational
- Headphone check passedscore
- 1 for a passed equipment check, 0 for a failed check.
- Informational
- Headphone check correctcount
- Correct equipment-check responses out of six.
- Informational
- Reported output delayms
- Output delay reported by the browser, or empty when unavailable.
- Informational
Use and evidence
77 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, up 4% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 306 of 632 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 |
| 2024 | 21 |
| 2023 | 18 |
| 2022 | 16 |
| 2021 | 15 |
| 2020 | 15 |
| 2019 | 24 |
| 2018 | 12 |
| 2017 | 13 |
| 2016 | 10 |
| 2015 | 12 |
| 2014 | 16 |
| 2013 | 12 |
| 2012 | 6 |
| 2011 | 12 |
| 2010 | 5 |
| 2009 | 7 |
| 2008 | 6 |
| 2007 | 1 |
| 2006 | 2 |
| 2005 | 2 |
| 2004 | 1 |
| 2003 | 4 |
| 2002 | 1 |
| 2001 | 1 |
| 2000 | 1 |
Use grade D
30 to 99 papers from 2021 to 2025.
Evidence grade B
At least 8 test-retest papers, and either 5 registered clinical studies or 150 reliability or validity papers.
- Papers on test-retest reliability
- 8
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 32
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 6
Measured on ConductCognition
Pooled across the studies that feed our platform norms, by device group. A figure needs 50 or more people.
No pooled figure yet.
How the grades work
Use: A is 1,000 or more papers from 2021 to 2025, B 300 to 999, C 100 to 299, D 30 to 99 and E fewer than 30. Evidence: A means at least 25 papers report its test-retest reliability and at least 25 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome; B, at least 8 test-retest papers, and either 5 registered clinical studies or 150 reliability or validity papers; C, at least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies; D, little published measurement evidence found. The counts measure use. They include every paper that names the task in its title or abstract. Grades describe the published research on this task, not ConductCognition's version of it.
Source: ConductCognition test census 0.44.0, counted 12 November 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Task design
The trial sequence as the test runs in ConductCognition.
- Sound setup
- Set a comfortable volume and take the 6-trial headphone check. A failed check stops the task by default; researchers can continue with a quality flag.
- Sound
- Three tones of 150 ms with 10 ms ramps, 200 ms apart, each low (880 Hz) or high (1,122 Hz), the published test's values, in both ears at the level the participant set.
- Trial
- Press Play, listen once, then choose one of six buttons: High High Low, High Low High, High Low Low, Low High High, Low High Low or Low Low High. There is no time limit.
- Trials
- Each round plays the six patterns once in a seeded order: 5 rounds, 30 scored trials. Researchers can set 3 to 10 rounds (18 to 60 trials).
- Practice
- One round of 6 practice trials, each followed by Correct or the pattern played for 1,000 ms. Scored trials give no feedback.
- Scores
- The primary score is the share of patterns reported in the right order (chance 1 in 6). The share for each pattern, tone accuracy, reversals and the median answer time accompany it. Answers under 100 ms from the buttons opening leave scores.
The published test takes spoken or hummed answers; this version uses buttons, and on a touch screen, choosing the pattern gave scores that tracked spoken answers (Nazaré and colleagues, 2026). Normal-hearing young adults averaged about 90 percent with spoken answers (Musiek, 1994). Headphones, normal hearing and a comfortable volume are required; levels are relative rather than calibrated. Results describe this task and do not assess hearing; no percentile is given.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: pitch_pattern_test from the selected run, one of six pattern buttons after three high or low tones, with no time limit (chance 1 in 6; every round plays each pattern once), graded from the button pressed and the pattern played. Below chance invalidates and not above chance is flagged; one button on 90% of answers invalidates when accuracy is not above chance. Answers under 100 ms leave scores and invalidate when at least half. A failed headphone check that stopped the test leaves no results; one the study ran past and a short run are flagged.
Why these rules
Accuracy significantly below chance (one-sided exact test, p < .05) cannot come from guessing; it means the response mapping was reversed or the task was not followed (Slick, Sherman and Iverson 1999 treat below-chance forced-choice performance as definite response bias). Chance-level accuracy can be a real result in impaired participants, so it is only flagged. One option on at least 90% of answered trials, when the correct options are balanced and accuracy is not above chance, means the answers did not depend on the items (the task counterpart of long-string responding in surveys; Curran 2016). The answer buttons open once the third tone has been heard, so an answer under 100 ms came before they could be read. The tones need headphones, so a failed headphone check stops the test (Woods, Siegel, Traer and McDermott, 2017).
No percentile. Scores and quality flags only.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| When the headphone check fails | Stop the test | Stop the test, Continue the test |
| Rounds | 5 | 3 to 10 |
Yearly plans can change settings within these limits. Free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Need a setting this test does not have?
Devices and languages
- Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. Needs headphones. Participant devices
- Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese.
- Available on: Every plan, including the free plan.
- No percentile. Scores and quality flags only. How norms work
- Recruiting online? See the setup guides for Prolific, Sona Systems, CloudResearch Connect and Qualtrics.
Cite and describe
Participants completed the Pitch Pattern Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Pinheiro and Ptacek, 1971; Musiek and Pinheiro, 1987), with the standard settings (when the headphone check fails: Stop the test; rounds: 5). The main score was accuracy (share of usable answers that name the pattern played, all three tones in order).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Pinheiro, M. L., & Ptacek, P. H. (1971). Reversals in the perception of noise and tone patterns. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 49(6B), 1778-1782. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1912581Tone patterns and their reversals, the work the pattern test grew from.
- Musiek, F. E., & Pinheiro, M. L. (1987). Frequency patterns in cochlear, brainstem, and cerebral lesions. Audiology, 26(2), 79-88. https://doi.org/10.3109/00206098709078409The frequency pattern test the task follows.
- Musiek, F. E. (1994). Frequency (pitch) and duration pattern tests. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 5(4), 265-268. Mean scores near 90 percent in normal-hearing young adults.
- Balen, S. A., Moore, D. R., & Sameshima, K. (2019). Pitch and duration pattern sequence tests in 7- to 11-year-old children: Results depend on response mode. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 30(1), 6-15. https://doi.org/10.3766/jaaa.16132The published test's tone values, and how the answer mode changes scores.
- Nazaré, C., Silva, C. M., Reis, C., & Serrano, M. (2026). Preliminary concurrent validity of abbreviated app-based frequency and duration pattern tests in normal-hearing adults. Audiology Research, 16(5), 155. https://doi.org/10.3390/audiolres16050155Pattern buttons on a touch screen beside spoken answers.
- Woods, K. J. P., Siegel, M. H., Traer, J., & McDermott, J. H. (2017). Headphone screening to facilitate web-based auditory experiments. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 79(7), 2064-2072. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-017-1361-2The shared headphone check.
Source papers
- Musiek, F. E. (1994). Frequency (pitch) and duration pattern tests. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 5(4), 265-268.Paradigm source, Young adults
Questions
How long does the Pitch Pattern Task take?
About 4 to 6 minutes, as listed in the test library.
What device does a participant need?
Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. Needs headphones. The browser must be Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
What scores does it produce?
Accuracy, Accuracy by pattern, Tone accuracy, Reversals, Median answer time, Anticipations, Completed trials, Planned trials, Headphone check passed, Headphone check correct and Reported output delay. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Pitch Pattern Task used in research?
77 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, up 4% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 306 of 632 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade D). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.44.0, counted 12 November 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Pitch Pattern Task have?
In the published research, 8 papers report its test-retest reliability and 6 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade B in the ConductCognition test census).
Does it report a percentile?
No. Scores and quality flags only.
Which settings can a researcher change?
When the headphone check fails (Stop the test, Continue the test) and rounds (3 to 10). Settings can be changed on yearly plans; free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Which languages can participants use?
Participants can take this test in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese. English is on every plan, and the other languages come with yearly plans. Have a native speaker read the machine-translated text before launch.
Is this a clinical test?
No. ConductCognition is for research use only. It runs, scores and exports the test; clinical interpretation is outside the platform.
Every test: the full test list.
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