Effects of high intensity white noise on short‐term memory for position in a list and sequence

Abstract

The effect of high intensity white noise during the visual presentation of words on a number of short-term memory tasks was studied in humans. In a free recall task, recall of items decreased at the highest intensity used (85 dB) compared with a quiet and a 75 dB condition. In free recall, recall by category decreased and recall in the original sequence increased in the 75 dB compared with the other 2 conditions. Recall of the position of words in the list increased as noise intensity increased, but only when the learning of position was incidental, not when it was intentional. The effect was probably due to direction of attention or change in the learning strategy. Recall of the original sequence, as shown by the ability to give in response to a word from a list the word which had followed it in the original list, was supperior in the 75 dB compared with the other 2 conditions, but only when recall of the 2nd word was required, not when it had to be recognized among all the items from the original list. This can be explained if noise intensity affects the strength of traces and hence the interconnections established between them, on which retrieval depends.