Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location01:21

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location

The human brain perceives pitch through two primary mechanisms reflected in place theory and frequency theory. Each mechanism describes how sound waves are interpreted as specific pitches by the brain, offering insights into the intricate processes of auditory perception.
Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by identifying...
Hearing01:31

Hearing

When we hear a sound, our nervous system is detecting sound waves—pressure waves of mechanical energy traveling through a medium. The frequency of the wave is perceived as pitch, while the amplitude is perceived as loudness.
Sound Intensity00:58

Sound Intensity

The loudness of a sound source is related to how energetically the source is vibrating, consequently making the molecules of the propagation medium vibrate. To measure the loudness of a source, the physical quantity of interest is the intensity. This is defined as the energy emitted per unit of time per unit of area perpendicular to the sound wave's propagation direction. Since the total energy is greater if the source vibrates for a longer duration and over a larger area, dividing the emitted...
Sound Waves: Interference00:53

Sound Waves: Interference

Sound waves can be modeled either as longitudinal waves, wherein the molecules of the medium oscillate around an equilibrium position, or as pressure waves. When two identical waves from the same source superimpose on each other, the combination of two crests or two troughs results in amplitude reinforcement known as constructive interference. If two identical waves, that are initially in phase, become out of phase because of different path lengths, the combination of crests with troughs...
The Cochlea01:13

The Cochlea

The cochlea is a coiled structure in the inner ear that contains hair cells—the sensory receptors of the auditory system. Sound waves are transmitted to the cochlea by small bones attached to the eardrum called the ossicles, which vibrate the oval window that leads to the inner ear. This causes fluid in the chambers of the cochlea to move, vibrating the basilar membrane.
Doppler Effect - II01:05

Doppler Effect - II

The Doppler effect has several practical, real-world applications. For instance, meteorologists use Doppler radars to interpret weather events based on the Doppler effect. Typically, a transmitter emits radio waves at a specific frequency toward the sky from a weather station. The radio waves bounce off the clouds and precipitation and travel back to the weather station. The radio frequency of the waves reflected back to the station appears to decrease if the clouds or precipitation are moving...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Did aging-related beliefs and behaviors change during the COVID-19 pandemic?

European journal of ageing·2026
Same author

Detection of culprit presence in multiple-culprit crimes: A comparison of combined and separate lineup-presentation formats.

PloS one·2026
Same author

Binding and retrieval of omitted responses in complex response sequences.

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2026
Same author

Concurrent associations between objective markers and subjective markers of aging with indicators of successful aging: An integrative approach.

European journal of ageing·2026
Same author

The plus polar "we": Polarity correspondence as a component of in-group related prioritization processes.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026
Same author

Negative Feedback Does Not Reverse Observationally Acquired Binding and Retrieval Effects: A Failed Replication.

Journal of cognition·2026
Same journal

The properties of personal semantics.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

Music enhances associative generalization: Evidence from a memory integration task.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

Video, text, and memory: An emotional verbal overshadowing effect.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

Limited protective effects of multilingualism against age-related cognitive decline.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

Validation of illustrated texts: Can pictures raise awareness of inconsistencies?

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

I remember (and forget) your happy smiling face: Directed forgetting of emotionally expressive faces of in-group and out-group members.

Memory & cognition·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 5, 2026

An Automated System for Sound Localization Testing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners
07:52

An Automated System for Sound Localization Testing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners

Published on: March 13, 2026

Sound source location modulates the irrelevant-sound effect.

Axel Buchner1, Raoul Bell, Klaus Rothermund

  • 1Institut für Experimentelle Psychologie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, Germany. axel.buchner@uni-duesseldorf.de

Memory & Cognition
|May 22, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Distractor sounds negatively impact memory recall. Sounds originating from the same direction as visual information cause the greatest memory impairment, supporting cross-modal attention links.

More Related Videos

Sound Source Localization Testing in Single-sided Deafness Following Bone Conduction Intervention
04:32

Sound Source Localization Testing in Single-sided Deafness Following Bone Conduction Intervention

Published on: December 20, 2024

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition
07:14

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition

Published on: October 29, 2018

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 5, 2026

An Automated System for Sound Localization Testing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners
07:52

An Automated System for Sound Localization Testing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners

Published on: March 13, 2026

Sound Source Localization Testing in Single-sided Deafness Following Bone Conduction Intervention
04:32

Sound Source Localization Testing in Single-sided Deafness Following Bone Conduction Intervention

Published on: December 20, 2024

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition
07:14

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition

Published on: October 29, 2018

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Auditory Perception

Background:

  • The irrelevant-sound effect describes how background sounds can impair memory recall.
  • Existing working memory models do not fully explain this effect, particularly regarding attention.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of attention in the irrelevant-sound effect.
  • To examine how the spatial location of distractor sounds influences memory recall.

Main Methods:

  • Participants memorized digit lists under different auditory conditions: silence, front-directed distractor sounds, and rear-directed distractor sounds.
  • Recall performance was measured and compared across conditions.

Main Results:

  • Distractor sounds significantly impaired memory recall compared to silence.
  • The most substantial impairment occurred when distractor sounds originated from the frontal direction, aligning with the visual target display.

Conclusions:

  • Findings support theories of cross-modal attentional links, where attention can be drawn to stimuli across different sensory modalities.
  • The results challenge working memory models that lack an explicit role for attention in information maintenance during immediate serial recall.