"Relating Perception And Memory For A Novel Set Of Reconfigurable Audit" by Nathan Francis Gillespie

Date of Award

5-1-2024

Language

English

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School/Department

Department of Psychology

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Gregory E. Cox

Committee Members

Ronald S. Friedman, Gaurav Malhotra

Keywords

Individual differences, Memory, Perception, Recognition, Similarity, Timbre

Subject Categories

Cognitive Psychology

Abstract

Although real-life events are complex and temporally extended, most memory research employs discrete, static stimuli presented in the visual modality. We begin to bridge this gap using a novel set of auditory stimuli constructed by adjusting the distribution of power across upper frequency bands. Across three experiments, participants rated similarity between pairs of sounds and engaged in a recognition memory task. We applied non-metric multidimensional scaling to similarity ratings to obtain a three-dimensional psychological representation of the stimuli. The representation inferred from the similarity ratings predicted recognition memory performance for single probe sounds following sequential presentation of two sounds. Recognition false alarms increased with subjective similarity between the probe and the first memory item but not the second, suggesting that the most recent sound was represented in a form less susceptible to incidental similarity. We also observed a list homogeneity effect: hits and false alarms decreased with similarity between studied sounds. There were also individual differences in memory sensitivity and criterion setting as function of traits like self-rated hearing ability and motivation. We discuss implications for the development of an integrative theory of perceptual similarity and recognition memory in the auditory domain.

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