Abstract
Typically, hearing a repeated syllable produces minimal disruption of serial recall of visual lists, but a sequence of different syllables impairs performance markedly. Two conditions for presenting anidentical sequence of three syllables are compared: one, in which, by means of stereophony, each syllable is assigned to the left, center, or right auditory locus (three streamsnot changing in state), and another, in which the same syllable sequence occurs in one location only (one streamwith changing state). Disruption was significantly less in the stereophonic than in the monophonic condition. There was a joint effect of changing state and location, not an effect of the number of locations alone. In Experiment 2, temporal predictability was used to manipulate changing state. The disruptive effect ofregular presentation of a repeated syllable was markedly increased when it was presentedirregularly. The results are discussed in the context of organizational factors in short-term memory.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bregman, A. S. (1990).Auditory scene analysis. Boston, MA: MIT Press.
Bregman, A. S., &Rudnicky, A. (1975). Auditory segregation: Stream or streams?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,1, 263–267.
Bridges, A., & Jones, D. M. (1992).Habituation and the irrelevant speech effect: The role of duration. Unpublished manuscript.
Colle, H. A. (1980). Auditory encoding in visual short-term recall: Effects of noise intensity and spatial location.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,19, 722–735.
Colle, H. A., &Welsh, A. (1976). Acoustic masking in primary memory.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,15, 17–32.
Cowan, N. (1988). Evolving conceptions of memory storage, selective attention, and their mutual constraints within the human information-processing system.Psychological Bulletin,104, 163–191.
Handel, S. (1989).Listening: An introduction to the perception of auditory events. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Jones, D. M. (1993). Objects, streams and threads of auditory attention. In A. D. Baddeley & L. Weiskrantz (Eds.),Attention, awareness and control (pp. 87–104). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jones, D. M. (1994). Disruption of memory for lipread lists by irrelevant speech: Further support for the changing state hypothesis.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,47A, 143–160.
Jones, D. M., &Macken, W. J. (1993). Irrelevant tones also produce an irrelevant speech effect: Implications for phonological coding in memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,19, 369–381.
Jones, D. M., & Macken, W. J. (in press). Phonological similarity in the irrelevant speech effect: Within- or between-stream similarity?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition.
Jones, D. M., Macken, W. J., &Murray, A. C. (1993). Disruption of visual short-term memory by changing-state auditory stimuli: The role of segmentation.Memory & Cognition,21, 318–328.
Jones, D. [M.], Madden, C., &Miles, C. (1992). Privileged access by irrelevant speech to short-term memory: The role of changing state.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,44A, 645–669.
Jones, D. M., Miles, C., &Page, J. (1990). Disruption of proof-reading by irrelevant speech: Effects of attention, arousal or memory?Applied Cognitive Psychology,4, 89–108.
Jones, D. M., &Morris, N. (1992). Irrelevant speech and serial recall: Implications for theories of attention and working memory.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology,33, 212–229.
Miles, C., Jones, D. M., &Madden, C. (1991). Locus of the irrelevant speech effect in short-term memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,17, 578–584.
Morris, N., &Jones, D. M. (1990a). Habituation to irrelevant speech: Effects on a visual short-term memory task.Perception & Psychophysics,47, 291–297.
Morris, N., &Jones, D. M. (1990b). Memory updating in working memory: The role of the central executive.British Journal of Psychology,81, 111–121.
Penney, C. G. (1989). Modality effects and the structure of short-term verbal memory.Memory & Cognition,17, 398–422.
Royer, F. L., &Robin, D. A. (1986). On the perceived unitization of repetitive auditory patterns.Perception & Psychophysics,39, 9–18.
Salamé, P., &Baddeley, A. D. (1982). Disruption of short-term memory by unattended speech: Implications for the structure of working memory.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,21, 150–164.
Salamé, P., &Baddeley, A. D. (1986a). Phonological factors in STM: Similarity and the unattended speech effect.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,24, 263–265.
Salamé, P., &Baddeley, A. D. (1986b). The unattended speech effect: Perception or memory?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,12, 525–529.
Salamé, P., &Baddeley, A. D. (1987). Noise, unattended speech and short-term memory.Ergonomics,30, 1185–1194.
Salamé, P., &Baddeley, A. D. (1989). Effects of background music on phonological short-term memory.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,41A, 107–122.
Salamé, P., &Baddeley, A. [D.] (1990). The effects of irrelevant speech on immediate free recall.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,28, 540–542.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
These experiments are part of a program of work funded by the United Kingdom’s Economic and Social Research Council.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jones, D.M., Macken, W.J. Organizational factors in the effect of irrelevant speech: The role of spatial location and timing. Memory & Cognition 23, 192–200 (1995). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197221
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197221