Different Interference Effects in Musicians and a Control Group
Abstract
In the present study musicians and normal control subjects performed an S1-S2 pitch comparison task, which included the presentation of intervening tones during the retention interval. The time for encoding and storing the pitch of S1 was varied between 200 and 1,500 ms by changing the pause between the S1 offset and the onset of the intervening tones. Although musicians outperformed the control group with longer pauses after the S1 offset, this advantage was relatively small with shorter pauses. These results suggest that the advantage of musicians in storing auditory information is not solely due to their superior encoding of information but also to improved working memory operations.
References
(1984). On short and long auditory stores. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 2 341– 370
(1988). Evolving concepts of memory storage, selective attention, and their mutual constraints within the human information processing system. Psychological Bulletin, 104(2), 163– 191
(2004). Pitch perception and retention: Two cumulative benefits of selective attention. Memory & Cognition, 66(4), 607– 617
(1970). Tones and numbers: Specificity of interference in immediate memory. Science, 168, 1604– 1605
(1972a). Effect of repetition of standard and comparison tones on recognition memory for pitch. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 93, 1 156– 162
(1972b). Mapping for interactions in the pitch memory store. Science, 175, 1020– 1022
(1975). Facilitation by repetition in recognition memory for tonal pitch. Memory & Cognition, 3(3), 263– 266
(1982). The processing of pitch combinations. In D. Deutsch (Ed.), The Psychology of Music (pp. 271-316). New York: Academic Press.
(1975). Disinhibition in pitch memory. Perception & Psychophysics, 17, 3 320– 324
(1995). Long-term working memory. Psychological Review, 102, 2 211– 245
(1985). The psychology of chess skill. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
(1999). Superior preattentive auditory processing in musicians. Neuroreport, 10, 6 1309– 1313
(2000). Concurrent processing of tonal and verbal materials in working memory: Do musicians differ from non-musicians?. In E. Schröger, A. Mecklinger, A. Friederici (Eds.), Working on working memory (pp. 79-96). Leipzig, Germany: Leipziger Universitätsverlag.
(1999). The concept of auditory stimulus representation in cognitive neuroscience. Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 826– 859
(1992). Interference in memory for tonal pitch: Implications for a working-memory model. Memory & Cognition, 20(3), 314– 320
(1988). Pragmatics of measuring recognition memory: Applications to dementia and amnesia. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 117, 1 34– 50
(2005). Pitch-discrimination accuracy in musicians vs. non-musicians: An event-related brain potential and behavioral study. Experimental Brain Research, 161, 1 1– 10
(2000). The development of the use of long-term knowledge to assist short-term recall. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53A(2), 457– 478
(2005). From sensory to long-term memory: Evidence from auditory memory reactivation studies. Experimental Psychology, 52(1), 3– 20