Schedule of Events | Symposia

Perceptual similarity predicts item recognition errors but not serial order errors in auditory working memory

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Abigail Noyce¹ (anoyce@andrew.cmu.edu), Will Yuhang Li^1,2, Eli Bulger¹, Barbara Shinn-Cunningham¹; ¹Carnegie Mellon University, ²University of Wisconsin

One source of memory errors is theorized to be similarity or confusability among stimuli. Perceptual organization of items or features into coherent objects also impacts how effectively working memory can maintain and retrieve those items. Here, we examine the effects of perceptual similarity and perceptual organization in auditory working memory for three classes of stimuli: complex tones at varying pitches (most similar), sampled natural sounds (most dissimilar), and feline vocalizations (in between). To further explore the critical role of temporal grouping in auditory object formation, we tested memory via two tasks with different probe structures (N = 40). In both tasks, the memory set was a sequence of 4 sound items from one category. In item recognition memory, a single probe item was played and listeners reported whether it matched any remembered item. In serial order memory, a probe sequence comprising the same 4 items was presented and listeners reported whether the items’ order matched the remembered sequence. Item recognition performance was highest for natural sounds and lowest for complex tones; serial order performance had the reverse effect. All stimuli pairs were independently rated in similarity, allowing us to evaluate whether similarity predicted memory. In item recognition, the similarity between the probe and the memory sequence strongly predicted the probability of “present” responses. In serial order, there was no meaningful relationship. Probe-target perceptual similarity matters when the items must be maintained in memory as individual objects, but does not predict memory for temporal, sequential representations of events.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition