TOPIC: ‘’AUDITORY MEMORY SPAN’’

PSYCHOLOGY
COURSE TITLE – FOUNDATIONS OF
PSYCHOLOGY
YEAR - 1
SEMESTER – I
SECTION – A

SUBMITTED BY:
AREEBA ILYAS
CIIT/FA21-BPY-005/LHR
SESSION 2021-2025
COURSE INSTRUCTOR:
MISS SAMREEN SHAHZAIB
DATE – OCTOBER-2021
 Experiment # 1

Auditory Memory Span

Memory

Statement

‘’Auditory Memory Span’’

Purpose

The purpose of this experiment was to find out the auditory memory span for forward and
Backward digits.

Introduction:

The word ‘’Memory” has been derived from a Latin word “Memoria” means to retain in
Mind. Our memory is the library of our personal history. Our memories from a living record of

Memories help us to define ourselves, connect our present thought and actions to the roots of us.

Past and prepare for a meaningful future. Most cognitive psychologists define memory as a
perceptually active mental system that receives, encodes, modifies and retrieves information.
Without memory we could not even reflect upon ourselves,

Definition of memory:

Memory is the mental capacity to store recall or recognize the events that were
previously experienced. The term memory also refers to what is retained. memory is the ability
to take in information, store it, and recall it at later time.

Definition by different psychologist:

According to Woodworth:
“ Memory means to remember which has been learned in the past”

According to Sternberg:

Memory is the mean by which we draw on our past experiences in order to use this information
in the present. (Sternberg, 1999).
According to Matlin:
“Memory is the process of maintaining information over time”

Model of memory:

Psychologists are well agreed that there are three memory systems
within the overall systems of remembering and recalling information. Atkinson and Shiffrin
(1968) suggest that three kind of memory storage system exist i.e.,

 Sensory memory
 Short term memory
 Long term memory

Psychologist have studied this phenomenon and proposed different models of memory. These
models explain why it happens and how it happens. let’s have a glance on different models.

Sensory Memory:

Sensory memory preserves fleeting impression of sensory stimuli, sight, sounds,

smells and texture but only for a second or two. In order to recognize incoming stimuli, the brain
must analyze and compare them to what is already stored in long term memory. Although this
process is very quick, it still takes time.

The major function of sensory memory is to hold information long enough for it
to be processed further (stern, 1985). The maintenance is the job of sensory register. And there is
a separate register for each of the five sensory modalities. It is assumed that a register for each
sense holds appropriate incoming stimulus information for a brief interval. Memories held in the
sensory register are fleeting, but the last long enough for stimulus identification to begin (Ellis
and Hunt, 1989)

Sensory memory brings coherence and continuity to the world. When we look slowly around, it
seems if our eyes are moving smoothly. In fact, our eyes fixate at one point for about 1/4th of
second and then rapidly jump to a new position. But the sensation of smoothness occurs because
which the scene is held in sensory memory until the eyes fixate again.

Similarly, when we listen someone talking, the auditory sensory register allows us to experience
a smooth flow of information.

Martindale (1991) explains that sensory memories quickly fade if they are not processed further
in an adaptive characteristic of the memory system. One simply cannot deal with all of the sights,
sounds, odours, taste and tactile sensation that touch on the sense organs at any given moment. It
is our selective attention which controls the stimulus field that what information is to be
processed further.

We know more about visual and auditory memories than the others. A visual memory is called
an icon and lasts about half a second. An auditory memory is called an echo and lasts several
second.

Short term memory:

A stimulus that has been recognized is likely to be transferred to short term memory
(STM). When we attend to and perceive a stimulus, a representation of the stimulus enters short-
term memory. The information in STM is usually available for much longer. STM is an
intermediate memory process between the fleeting events of sensory memory and long-term
memory.

Carpenter and just (1989), describe that the material which is transferred from sensory to STM
can be consciously organize and thought about. For this reason, many theorists prefer the term
working memory to short term memory. This system enables people to do much of their mental
work. Working memory has two major functions.

First, working memory allows us to construct a continually updated working model of the world
and where we are in it. Second, working memory makes it possible to think and solves problem
(Simen,1989).

The system allows us to store, organize and integrate facts. Even in the situation where we must
remember information for only a few seconds, our memory involves the three stages of
encoding, storage and retrievals. The limited, brief storage capacity for short term memory is
called the immediate memory span. Short term memory plays an important role in conscious
thought. When we are trying to solve a problem consciously, we often use STM as a mental
work space.

John Brown (1958) and Lloyds and Margaret Peterson (1959) devised the brown Peterson, in
which subject is presented items but prevented from rehearsal. It was noted that rapid forgetting
was seen without rehearsal.

Long term memory:

Long term memory constitutes a person’s total knowledge of the world and of the self.
Long term memory (LTM) is the store house of all the experienced events, information, emotion,
skills words, categories, rules and judgments.

This memory system enables us to do much more than just retain a record of the past events or
thoughts. Materials in LTM helps us deal with and store new information. It also makes it
possible for us to solve new problems, reasons, keep future appointment and apply a variety od
rules to manipulates abstract symbols, to think and to create something we have new
experienced.

Long term memory involves information that have been retained for brief interval or as long as
lifetime. And its is often difficult to know storage or a failure retrieval.

Endel Tulving (1972) argued that there are likely to be several kinds of memory on several
grounds. The clinical evidence implies that there are different types of memory; as noted people
who suffer from brain damage, often lose some memory function and not others. he stated that it
is almost impossible to make generalization about particular kind of memory.

Tulving was the first one who proposed the distribution between declarative and non-declarative
memory. further, he explained that declarative memory consists of episodic and semantic
memory, while procedural memory is part of non-declarative one.

Squire (1992) suggested a different way of distinguish between different forms of long-term
memory. He described them as procedural and declarative memory.

Memory span:

Memory span defined functionally as “the ability of an individual to reproduce

immediately, after one presentation, a series of discrete stimuli in their original order” A
structural definition is more difficult since memory span involves processes of attention,
associability, imagery, and memory.

Auditory memory span:

 Auditory memory span written as a simple words auditory memory span indicates the
capacity of a person’s working memory. The auditory span is a person has a good auditory
memory span if male or female can be remembering a lot of things, after only hearing them
repeated once. Auditory memory span also plays a crucial role in literacy. It is one area of
auditory processing that directly impacts reading, spelling, writing, and specially math method or
skills Kurek and Sinclair (2001) measured auditory memory in kindergarteners and found
readiness in auditory memory predicted later reading achievement as well as mathematics
achievement in fourth grade.

Children with poor auditory memory skills may struggle to recognize sounds and match them to
letter a common symptom of a reading disability. In research (2002) found that dyslexic children
exhibited a significant deficit in tasks involving auditory memory skills.

Popescu MV, Polley DB (2010) monaural deprivation disrupts development of binaural selective
in auditory midbrain and cortex.

Rae Lynn J Laminen, Daniel Houlihan (2015) A brief overview of Amblyaudia Health.

Bigler RC, Nuetzel JM, Rabinowitz WM, Rzeczkowski C (1984) standardization of a test of
speech perception in AWM: adults with normal mild-moderate hearing loss noise. J speech hear
Res.

RM Hurley (1999) onset of auditory deprivation. journal of the American academy of audiology.

Millman RE, Mattey SL (2017) auditory verbal working memory as a predictor of speech
perception in modulated maskers in listeners with normal hearing. Journal of speech, language,
and hearing research

Lunner Y , Rudner M, ronnberg J (2009) cognition and hearing aids Scandinavian’s journal of
psychology.

Hypothesis:

The memory span for forward digit is greater than the memory span for backward digit.

Method

Apparatus

List of forward and backward digits,

Scale

Paper
 Pen

Participants

Areeba ilyas

Experimenter

Name Age Education Gender

A.A 20 Bs psychology F

Subject

Name Age Education Gender

A.K 19 Intermediate F

Procedure

After giving the complete information about the experiment, the subject was asked to listen
to the digits carefully and then asked to recall that digits as the same as it was presented by the
experimenter. The experiment consists of two phases. In the first phase, the subject must recall
the digit as manipulate by the experimenter as it is i.e., forward digits. In the second phase. the
subject has to recall the digit in backward or asked by the experimenter opposite to that.

Continue in the same manner by increasing the series of numbers from two to
continue increasing the series of number by one each time until the answer is incorrect. The
number of correct and incorrect response was noted down at the end. The total number of correct
and incorrect responses has been calculated and also the highest number of digits the subject
could recalled was also noted.

Table 3.1
The responses of participants in reading digits in the forward order
Trials Number of digits Digits Responses

1 2 22 

36 

2 3 346 

432 

3 4 5737 

6585 

4 5 45732 

37284 

5 6 346372 

457232 

6 7 3626323 

6835768 

7 8 47564686 

54583764 

8 9 809362674 

346453259 

Total 8
Table 3.2

The responses of participants in reading digits in the backward order.

Trials Number of digit Digits Responses

1 2 24 

21 

2 3 345 

456 

3 4 3456 

4532 

4 5 56842 

23966 

5 6 645334 

654737 

6 7 3782718 

6424787 

Total 6

_____________________________________________________________________________

Graph showing response with forward and backward digits

 Graph showing the responses of
Forward and backward digits

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Forward 1 Backward


Discussion

The experiment was performed to find out the memory span for forward and backward
digits. It was hypothezided that the memory span for forward digits is greater than the memory
span for backward didits. The result leads to the acceptance of hypotheses that forward digit
span , is greater than the backward span.

A study conducted by li Lewandowky 1995 with immediate serial recall in which

participants were presented with series of stimuli and were asked to recall them direction of
recall was kown to be an important determinant of performing , with participant typically
achieving high scores when recalling items in their original (forward ) order , relative to reverse
or bavkward order

Another study was conduted to access whether WMS-III spatial span subtest operates as
a visual amalogue of digit span while the second was to determine wheter back ward span is
more sensitive measure of working memory than the forward condition analysis based on WAIS
III WMS II revealed that some distinction between digits.
 Conclusion

By performing our experiment and analyzing the result, we can conclude that the correct
responses for forward digits were greater than the correct responses of backward digits. Our
hypothesis is accepted and our conclusion is also supported by results and a number of
mentioned researches.

Limitations

Following are the limitation we faced while performing our experiment.

1 The subject was in fear of not answering correctly.

2 Also, the subject was feeling anxious and uncomfortable because of crowded room.

3 However, anxiety was a confounding variable throughout the experiment.

Suggestions

Following are the suggestion for experiment;

1 I would therefore recommend or suggests that we should pot for favorable environment

While performing experiment.

2 Surroundings must be silent and easy for subject.