PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Recent research has begun measuring auditory working memory with a continuous adjustment task in which listeners adjust attributes of a sound to match a stimulus presented earlier. This approach captures auditory memory\'s continuous nature better than standard change detection paradigms that collect binary (\"same or different\") memory measurements. In two experiments, we assessed the impact of different interference stimuli (multitone complexes vs. white noise vs. silence) on the precision and accuracy of participants\' reproductions of pitch from memory. Participants were presented with a target multitone complex stimulus followed by eight successive interference signals. Across trials, these signals alternated between additional multitone complexes, randomly generated white noise samples, or (in Experiment 2) silence. This was followed by a response period where participants adjusted the pitch of a response stimulus using a MIDI touchpad to match the target. Experiment 1 found a significant effect of interference type on performance, with tone interference signals producing the greatest impairments to participants\' accuracy and precision compared to white noise. Interestingly, it also found a compression in the participants\' responses, with overestimations of low-frequency targets and underestimations for high-frequency targets. Experiment 2 replicated results from Experiment 1, with an additional silence condition showing the best performance, suggesting that non-tonal signals also generate interference. In general, results support a shared resource model of working memory with a limited capacity that can be flexibly allocated to hold items in memory with varying levels of fidelity. Interference does not appear to knock items out of a fixed precision slot, but rather robs a portion of capacity from stored items.
摘要：
最近的研究已经开始通过连续调整任务来测量听觉工作记忆，其中听众调整声音的属性以匹配先前提出的刺激。这种方法比收集二进制（“相同或不同”）记忆测量的标准变化检测范式更好地捕获听觉记忆的连续性。在两个实验中，我们评估了不同干扰刺激的影响(多音调复合物与白噪声vs.沉默)对参与者从记忆中复制音高的精确度和准确性。向参与者展示了目标多音复合刺激，然后是八个连续的干扰信号。在整个试验中，这些信号在额外的多音调复合体之间交替，随机产生的白噪声样本，或者（在实验2中）沉默。随后是响应期，参与者使用MIDI触摸板调整响应刺激的音高以匹配目标。实验一发现干扰类型对性能有显著影响,与白噪声相比，音调干扰信号对参与者的准确性和精确度产生最大的损害。有趣的是,它还在参与者的回答中发现了压缩，对低频目标的高估和对高频目标的低估。实验2复制了实验1的结果，附加的静音条件显示了最佳性能，这表明非音调信号也会产生干扰。总的来说,结果支持具有有限容量的工作内存的共享资源模型，可以灵活地分配以在内存中保存具有不同保真度的项目。干扰似乎不会将项目从固定的精度插槽中剔除，而是从存储的项目中抢走一部分容量。
