Retention of Gap Length in Normal-Hearing Listeners

Abstract

Listener retention of silent, gap-length duration was studied. Just noticeable differences (JNDs) for gap length within standard and comparison stimuli were obtained for intervals with and without intervening noise bursts, including a condition with gapped intervening bursts. Outcomes indicate that gap duration itself can be determinant. Also, JNDs were similar whether intervening stimuli were present or absent, differing from results reported for pitch, loudness, and timbre retention. The latter suggests additional/alternative cortical resources might be employed for retention of auditory-temporal information.

Release from Retroactive Retention Interference for Acoustic Duration

“…Although not specifically tested here, the perceived context of the silent gap may influence whether the retroactive interference occurs for retention of such acoustic events. Ries et al (2013) found that retention of gap length between sound events demonstrates no significant interference from interpolated sound sequences. Conversely, Deutsch (1986) reported that retention interference occurs when sound durations are measured using marked empty intervals.…”

“…Sound event duration is one acoustic attribute that conveys useful information for human (eg Kingston, Kawahara, Chambless, Mash, & Brenner-Alsop, 2009;Monaghan, White, & Merkx, 2013) and beast (eg Gerhardt & Doherty, 1988;Narins & Capranica, 1978;Nelson, 1988). Retention of some temporal acoustic information (ie silent gap length between stimuli) is resistant to interference from subsequently presented auditory stimuli (Ries, Woods, & Smith, 2013). However, retention of stimulus event duration defined by marked empty intervals (ie acoustic signals mark the onset and offset of a sound with silence in between) does not exhibit such resistance in the presence of similar, interpolated sounds presented in a simple metronomic manner (Deutsch, 1986).…”

“…To investigate this potential incongruence, we tested the retention of stimulus duration using the same methodology employed in our earlier investigation of gap-length retention (Ries et al, 2013) in pursuit of our primary research question. Is retention of sound duration using nonmetrically related (arrhythmic), interpolated sound sequences composed of filledinterval stimuli subject to retroactive interference within the primary task or resistant to such effects as occurs for temporal gap retention?…”