I think you're right. Along the same lines, it seems possible that they don't even need to hear them in relation to tonal centers, but merely as chords; the success of the Eguchi method in teaching absolute pitch utterly depends on the children automatically inferring the shared and distinct tones to be separate-- and meaningful. Although the separation is true of perceptual learning at any age (anyone who plays Chordhopper/Eguchi will hear the tones separating themselves), it seems that only the little kids are still naive enough to think that the individual tones must be meaningful.
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