Auditory Change Detection: Simple Sounds Are Not Memorized Better Than Complex Sounds

Abstract

Previous research has shown that the detectability of a local change in a visual image is essentially independent of the complexity of the image when the interstimulus interval (ISI) is very short, but is limited by a low-capacity memory system when the ISI exceeds 100 ms. In the study reported here, listeners made same/different judgments on pairs of successive "chords" (sums of pure tones with random frequencies). The change to be detected was always a frequency shift in one of the tones, and which tone would change was unpredictable. Performance worsened as the number of tones increased, but this effect was not larger for 2-s ISIs than for 0-ms ISIs. Similar results were obtained when a chord was followed by a single tone that had to be judged as higher or lower than the closest component of the chord. Overall, our data suggest that change detection is based on different mechanisms in audition and vision.

Loss and persistence of implicit memory for sound: Evidence from auditory stream segregation context effects

“…Specifically, when a "target" pure tone is presented simultaneously with masking pure tones, followed by a pure tone of a slightly different frequency as compared with the critical tone, listeners are able to judge the direction of frequency change, despite the fact that the "target" tone is not detected as a separate entity (Demany, Pressnitzer, & Semal, 2009;Demany & Ramos, 2005;Demany, Semal, & Pressnitzer, 2010b). Although performance on this task declines when there is a larger time interval between the to-be-discriminated tones and when there is a larger number of masking tones, these two factors do not interact in such a way that memory for the first tone declines precipitously for more complex sounds (Demany Semal, Cazalets, & Pressnitzer, 2010a;Demany, Trost, Serman, & Semal, 2008), as is the case with vision (Phillips, 1974). An important limitation to these studies, however, is that the memory system recruited for detection of frequency shifts might be different from the memory system(s) involved in implicit or explicit comparisons between complex auditory scenes (including ABA-patterns) (Demany, Semal et al, 2010b; for further discussion, see Snyder & Gregg, 2011).…”

The effects of intervening interference on working memory for sound location as a function of inter-comparison interval

“…This may be accomplished over time through use of multiple mechanisms such as specialized location change (motion) detectors (Perrott and Marlborough, 1989), similar in concept to those proposed for pitch perception (Demany and Ramos, 2005;Demany et al, 2008), or a multiple looks snapshot mechanism (Grantham, 1985(Grantham, , 1986. Which of these mechanisms is invoked is dependent upon the rate of change in position of the sound source (see Grantham, 1997).…”

“…When this occurs, context memory takes over, forming a less detailed, categorical representation of the sound information that can be maintained over prolonged periods of time and/or in difficult listening situations (Durlach and Braida, 1969). While there is preponderance of information regarding retention of pitch information within auditory working memory in the presence of intervening interference (Anourova et al, 1999;Deutsch, 1970Deutsch, , 1972aMassaro, 1970;Ries and DiGiovanni, 2007) and as a function of time in quiet (Clément et al, 1999;Demany and Ramos, 2005;Demany et al, 2008;Harris, 1952), by and large the influence of inter-comparison interval duration and intervening sounds upon a person's ability to maintain detailed information with respect to sound location is unknown.…”

Summary statistics in auditory perception

“…Elapsed time alone therefore does not have a large effect on memory for temporal detail, at least not for the sounds and timescales that we explored (also see ref. 10). Instead, the ability to distinguish sounds of moderate or longer duration appears to be constrained by their statistics.…”