EFFECT OF A SPECIFIC NOISE ON VISUAL AND AUDITORY MEMORY SPAN

Messages of visual and aural stimuli (digits) were presented together with a specific noise consisting of different auditory and visual stimuli. The auditory memory span, measured by the amount of digits recalled immediately after presentation, was not at all affected by the interfering visual noise, whereas the visual memory span was found to be significantly reduced by the acoustic noise. The results are interpreted as giving support to the hypothesis on the acoustic nature of information storage in immediate memory. Possible differences in the properties of the visual and auditory peripheral filter are discussed.