title: Infant auditory short-term memory for non-linguistic sounds.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN 37614, USA. Electronic address: rosssheehy@etsu.edu.
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ross-Sheehy
authors.affiliation: Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Rochelle S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Newman
mesh_terms: D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D013016:Sound
keywords: Auditory perception; Auditory short-term memory; Auditory working memory; Infant; Short-term memory; Working memory