What did this picture sound like? Using paired audio-visual stimuli to test auditory imagery ability.
Poster Presentation

Conor O'Malley
School of Psychology, University College Dublin

Aidan Moran
School of Psychology, University College Dublin

     Abstract ID Number: 46
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: May 30, 2007
     Presentation date: 07/06/2007 10:00 AM in Quad Maclauren Hall
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
In order to examine auditory imagery ability we seek to establish people’s capacity to manipulate sounds, which they have stored in their heads. The current study investigated people’s abilities to memorize auditory features of sound/picture pairs. This was achieved through a learning phase, in which the stimuli were repeated up to 20 times, and a test phase in which the pictures were presented silently and the associated sound recalled. Recall required viewing the picture, scanning the image of the associated sound, and answering various questions. 42 participants were tested over a number of different learning trial conditions in order to establish normal recall rates. Response patterns were plotted to indicate the relationship between number of sound/picture stimuli and learning trials required for recall. Analyses show that performance does not differ from chance until a certain number of trials have been completed. For 4 stimuli it takes 5 learning trials to perform significantly better than chance, at which point there is no further improvement. Learning 10 sound picture stimuli improved until 15 trials but did not differ significantly from chance. Performance then diminished with more learning trials suggesting that there is a limit to how many sound/picture pairs can be stored.