Interference in memory between tones adjacent in the musical scale.
Diana Deutsch · Journal of Experimental Psychology · 1973
Pitch recognition was required alter a 4-sec. delay during which 4 other tones were played. When the standard (S) and comparison (C) tones were identical in pitch, the inclusion of a tone in the intervening sequence that was a semitone higher or lower than the S tone produced an increase in errors. Including tones both a semitone higher and a semitone lower in the same intervening sequence produced a fur ther increase in errors. Analogous results were obtained when the S and C tones differed in pitch. However, when the critical intervening tone was identical in pitch to the C tone, errors were fu r the r increased. This paper is concerned with interference effects in memory between tones of similar pitch. Studies of long-term verbal memory have repeatedly demonstrated similarity-based interference. However, the existence of such effects in short-term verbal memory has been the subject of considerable con-troversy (Brown, 1958; Conrad, 1964; Wickelgren, 1965). It has been shown that short-term recognition memory for tonal pitch is subject to interference produced specifically by the interpolation of tones in the retention interval and not by the inter-polation of numbers presented acoustically at equal loudness (Detitsch, 1970). Since tones are more similar acoustically to each other than they are to spoken numbers, this finding demonstrates a general effect of similarity. A more specific effect has also been found in a study in which pitch recognition was required after an interval during which other tones were played (Deutsch, 1972a). The standard (S) and comparison (C) tones were either identical in pitch or differed by a semitone. It was found that when S and C tones differed in pitch, the inclusion of a tone at the pitch of the C tone in the interpolated sequence produced an increment in errors. It was 'This work was supported by U.S. Public Health