Irrelevant music: How suprasegmental changes of a melody\u2019s tempo and mode affect the disruptive potential of music on serial recall

Judith Schweppe,Jens Knigge

doi:10.3758/s13421-020-01037-1

Abstract

On tests of verbal short-term memory, performance declines as a function of auditory distraction. The negative impact of to-be-ignored sound on serial recall is known as the irrelevant sound effect. It can occur with speech, sine tones, and music. Moreover, sound that changes acoustically from one token to the next (i.e., changing-state sound) is more disruptive to serial recall than repetitive, steady-state sound. We tested manipulations that resulted in changes in (higher levels of) perceptual organization for more complex tonal stimuli. Within a trial, the first two bars of a well-known melody were repeated (a) in the exact same manner, (b) with variations only in tempo, (c) with variations only in mode (e.g., Dorian or Phrygian), or (d) with variations in both tempo and mode. Participants serially recalled digits in each of the irrelevant sound conditions as well as in a silent control condition. In Experiment 1a, we tested non-music students and, to investigate whether musical expertise affected the findings, additionally tested students majoring in music in Experiment 1b. Across both samples, recall in the irrelevant sound conditions was significantly poorer than in the silent control condition, but only the tempo variation caused an additional harmful effect. The mode variation did not affect recall performance, in either music or non-music students. These findings indicate that, at least with music, changes are a matter of degree and not every additional variation impairs recall performance.

Highlights

The auditory system is characterized by its openness to environmental information. This enables the detection of potentially important information even when auditory attention is focused elsewhere. It comes at the cost of a high degree of distractibility and susceptibility to interference, the effects of which have been investigated in various domains, for instance, in verbal working memory or in the effects of background music on other cognitive tasks
A central characteristic of the irrelevant sound effect is that it is heavily influenced by the acoustic characteristics of the tobe-ignored sound: Sound that changes acoustically from one token to the is more disruptive to serial recall than repetitive, steady-state sound, which often does not impair recall performance at all
Presenting repetitions of a well-known melody resulted in an irrelevant sound effect as was the case with other musical stimuli in prior studies

Summary

Introduction

This enables the detection of potentially important information even when auditory attention is focused elsewhere It comes at the cost of a high degree of distractibility and susceptibility to interference, the effects of which have been investigated in various domains, for instance, in verbal working memory or in the effects of background music on other cognitive tasks. A central characteristic of the irrelevant sound effect is that it is heavily influenced by the acoustic characteristics of the tobe-ignored sound: Sound that changes acoustically from one token to the (i.e., changing-state sound) is more disruptive to serial recall than repetitive, steady-state sound, which often does not impair recall performance at all (changing state effect, e.g., Jones & Macken, 1993; see Oberauer et al, 2018). This is the case both for speech as irrelevant sound

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Conclusion