Category Superiority Effects and the Processing of Auditory Images

Abstract

Music and information appear to be processed by means of the phonological loop, as opposed to the visuospatial sketchpad, in working memory. Is this also true of memory for nonverbal, nonmusical auditory images, such as the characteristic sounds made by objects? In the present study, university students were presented with equivalent verbal stimuli, nonsemantic auditory stimuli, or pictorial stimuli, by category or in random order. Significant category superiority effects (CSEs) were obtained for both verbal and auditory stimuli, but not for pictorial stimuli, consistent with the expectation of phonological loop processing. However, absolute levels of recall for auditory stimuli were significantly higher than for verbal stimuli and did not differ from the levels observed for pictures, suggesting a somewhat intermediate character of processing for nonverbal, nonmusical auditory information.