Infant Auditory Short-Term Memory for Non-Linguistic Sounds
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2015
Description
This research explores auditory short-term memory (STM) capacity for non-linguistic sounds in 10-month-old infants. Infants were presented with auditory streams composed of repeating sequences of either 2 or 4 unique instruments (e.g., flute, piano, cello; 350 or 700. ms in duration) followed by a 500-ms retention interval. These instrument sequences either stayed the same for every repetition (Constant) or changed by 1 instrument per sequence (Varying). Using the head-turn preference procedure, infant listening durations were recorded for each stream type (2- or 4-instrument sequences composed of 350- or 700-ms notes). Preference for the Varying stream was taken as evidence of auditory STM because detection of the novel instrument required memory for all of the instruments in a given sequence. Results demonstrate that infants listened longer to Varying streams for 2-instrument sequences, but not 4-instrument sequences, composed of 350-ms notes (Experiment 1), although this effect did not hold when note durations were increased to 700. ms (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 replicates and extends results from Experiments 1 and 2 and provides support for a duration account of capacity limits in infant auditory STM.
Citation Information
Ross-Sheehy, Shannon; and Newman, Rochelle S.. 2015. Infant Auditory Short-Term Memory for Non-Linguistic Sounds. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Vol.132 51-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2014.12.001 PMID: 25590900 ISSN: 0022-0965