Acoustical/Auditory Memory?

I'm curious about that whole idea of only being able to remember what something sounded like for about 4 seconds. The chance of me ever running into any sort of DBT'ing is very slim. I do accept that I'll never be able to hear the difference of one wire over another and that due to memory limitations, will never really be able to compare one wire to another.

So how would that fit in with the fact that I do hear differences with different speakers and different surround modes. Seems like I can tell when the tone controls on my system are different from where they normally are. This to me is evidence of a memory function lasting well beyond that 4 second time.

I would like to be pointed to some reading material that discusses this area of interest. Comments and explanations are also welcome.

I had this music theory professor in college that had two Ph.D's. One in music theory and one in congnitive studies (how the brain works). She would always talk about "aural trace". This is your brains "short term" memory for sound, most likely what you are talking about for the 4 second memory, but it is also interrupted as soon as you hear another sound. How we remember from speaker to speaker is that we assign attributes to that aural trace that are more tangible in our minds. Silence for about 10-15 secs after hearing something greatly improves your chances to successfully transfer information from one form to the other. It's the same idea for when musicians are trying to transcribe music by ear. Wish I could give you readings on this, but this is just from in class interactions with the prof.

Acoustic memory is a very interesting thing. The average person has a memory of about 3-4 seconds from what I have gathered from my reading, but one can train to increase this threshold (the brain is an amazing thing ).

To expand on what mudrammer99 said there are a few reasons those who are knowledgeable recommend certain methods of audition over others.

First, many recommend using well know media this is because as previously stated we assign specific attributes to certain situations so we "know" how the material is supposed to sound. This method is the simplest and most achievable by the average person - just rely on what you know and make a good match.

The next step would be using an A/B blinded, if possible, comparison [using one's own room is ideal due to elimination of hugely prevalent room effects]. In such a method level matching should be taken into account due to various research showing that loudness correlates to what is perceived as sounding better. Using this method adds more control to the situation as it allows for a possible full ABx situation where you blindly choose which you like better.

The method I prefer [and am starting to do] is taking a pair of headphones with me and using them as a reference. I have picked these headphones due to their responses linearity as well as near complete lack of resonance. By SPL matching by ear (quick and dirty way of doing things) I can surmise the actual response of the speaker as well as coloration due to the cabinet.

As you can see all of these situations require the brain to use its auditory memory, but not directly. Instead we rely on the brain to do what it is best at, storing information, the hard part is learning the proper way to recall the information properly as such training might be required.

I do not have any of the papers I have read on hand, but I will try to look them up and post a few links later today. A good cognitive psychology book is always a great resource.

Edit: Basically, from what I have learned in my classes and read when we are listening to music especially critically we are using our working memory. During this working stage our brain is actively decoding the information sent to it and storing it focusing on specific details as directed [by ourselves of course]. The retrieval process is the hardest part for us to do correctly as often times after the fact we have already started to add our own distortions/preferences to the mix which is where our memories become inaccurate [this is why DBTs are so important to credible research]. Part of the reason auditory memory is so short is the way our brain is wired. When we are storing information it is rare that everything is stored, only the parts we queue ourselves to store are stored in close to complete actuality the rest is lost - this is why in general auditory memory is so short.

The head phones idea is cool. I will admit that at first I thought "how are you gonna hear the speakers while wearing headphones?" LOL It took me a minute to figure out that they come in handy for the sake of comparison. Which headphones do you use? Thanks

Alex2507 said:

The head phones idea is cool. I will admit that at first I thought "how are you gonna hear the speakers while wearing headphones?" LOL It took me a minute to figure out that they come in handy for the sake of comparison. Which headphones do you use? Thanks

Click to expand...

The best linear and resonance free headphone I know of is the Beyer DT880 2003 model. It is slightly, but easily modified (also easily removed as it is not permanent). Please realize a reasonable portable amp will be required for these headphones (18V minimum). Also, the newer models might not be up to the same quality as the 2003 model so you would have to buy used [I got mine on head-fi].

The mod would be required for ideal linearity.

As promised

As promised I am trying to look up some of the articles I have read over the time. Here is a small bibliography:

The Construction, Validation, and Standardization of a Test in Music Perception for High School Performance Groups
John H. Fluke; Jack N. Sparks
Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 13, No. 4. (Winter, 1965), pp. 220-226.

The Determination of Memory Span by the Method of Constant Stimuli
J. P. Guilford; Karl M. Dallenbach
The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 36, No. 4. (Oct., 1925), pp. 621-628.

The Psychology of Musical Memory, by Robert W. Winslow
Music Educators Journal © 1949 MENC: The National Association for Music Education

Not an entire wealth of information, but a good starting point. If someone wants to delve farther into the topic let me know and I will find some quality books on the subject as well.

Alex2507 said:

I'm curious about that whole idea of only being able to remember what something sounded like for about 4 seconds. The chance of me ever running into any sort of DBT'ing is very slim. I do accept that I'll never be able to hear the difference of one wire over another and that due to memory limitations, will never really be able to compare one wire to another.

So how would that fit in with the fact that I do hear differences with different speakers and different surround modes. Seems like I can tell when the tone controls on my system are different from where they normally are. This to me is evidence of a memory function lasting well beyond that 4 second time.

I would like to be pointed to some reading material that discusses this area of interest. Comments and explanations are also welcome.

Click to expand...

There are two factors at play here, short and long term memory.

Certainly we remember different music over long time as they are grossly different in every aspect.
Your experience with speakers and surround modes are better ingrained because there are large changes in sound and broad changes.

Now, components and wires may impart very small differences here and there, or nothing at all in other places, hence you are much closer to the threshold of detection. This is where your memory is very short and I doubt repetition will affect the length.

Lets look at another example use from time to time, that is color chips. As closer it is in color, the quicker your eyes will scan between the two and need the two chips overlapping just about. But, if the difference is large, it becomes very obvious very quickly.

When researchers at the Canadian Research Center do audio coding research, at times they loop just one tone to compare in rapid switching to try to differentiate them.