Ear of input as a determinant of pitch-memory interference

Six experiments to evaluate the effect of presentation ear on pitch-memory interference were conducted using undergraduates as listeners. The task was to compare the pitch of two tones that were separated by an interval that included eight interpolated tones; the interpolated tones were presented either ipsilaterally or contralaterally to the presentation ear of the comparison tones. When the ear of interpolated-tone presentations was blocked, and therefore predictable, ipsilateral interference was greater than contralateral. In contrast, when the interpolated-tone presentation ear was varied randomly from trial to trial, ipsilateral and contralateral interferences were equivalent. These results are analogous to results found in previously reported auditory backward recognition masking (ABRM) experiments and suggest that the ABRM effect may be due, in part, to pitch-memory interference. Implications for theories of auditory processing and memory are discussed.