Auditory short-term memory span and sequence for five different stimulus types

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of stimulus type on the measurement s of short-term auditory memory span and short-term auditory memory for sequence to determine if span and sequence measures were the same within each of five subtests and if span and/or sequence measures varied across all five subtests. A total of forty-five normal second, third, and fourth grade subjects were individually administered the Auditory Memory Test Battery (AMTB) which consisted of five tape-recorded tests of recall for digit sequences, unrelated word sequences, related word sequences, nonsense word sequences, and sentences. The subjects responded verbally to the randomly presented subtests. Each subject obtained ten scores: a span score and a sequence score for each of the five subtests. The results of the study showed the span and sequence scores for the digit task differed significantly, with the span task being easier; however, the scores did not differ significantly for unrelated words, related words, nonsense words, or sentences. Both span and sequence performances were found to vary significantly with the type of stimulus; however, no difference was found in sequence performance between related and unrelated words. Generally, sentence recall was easier than recall of individual words, and recall of nonsense words was most difficult.