We are happy to announce that Cosima Ermert, Manuj Yadav, John E. Marsh, Sabine Schlittmeier, Torsten W. Kuhlen, and Janina Fels recently published their article Serial recall in spatial acoustic environments: irrelevant sound effect and spatial source alternations in Scientific Reports!
Environments with multiple, spatialized sound sources present unique challenges for verbal short-term memory – particularly in the presence of background noise and when the location of target talkers changes. In this study, we investigated how switches of spatial location and the type of irrelevant background sounds in complex acoustic scenes influence the ability to remember sequences of items within the serial recall.
Our findings reveal that the type of background noise plays a crucial role in memory performance, strongly affecting the recall of sequences. Interestingly, changes in spatial location only disrupt memory when switches occur at a fast rate – much faster than rates in natural conversations. This highlights the importance of both acoustic content and movement dynamics in understanding listening and memory challenges in realistic conversational situations.
This research was carried out within the priority program SPP2236 AUDICTIVE funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
