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A Fröhlich effect and representational gravity in memory for auditory pitch
Timothy L Hubbard1, Susan E Ruppel
1Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA. timothyleehubbard@gmail.com
Auditory memory is displaced in the direction of pitch change, mirroring visual motion effects. This auditory Fröhlich effect depends on pitch velocity and is influenced by representational gravity.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Auditory Perception
- Crossmodal Research
Background:
- The Fröhlich effect describes memory displacement for visual targets moving in physical space.
- Previous research has primarily focused on visual stimuli, leaving auditory representations less explored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate memory for auditory pitch changes and its relationship to the Fröhlich effect.
- To determine if auditory frequency space shares biases with visual physical space representation.
Main Methods:
- Participants' memory for the initial pitch of auditory targets was tested.
- Targets featured increasing or decreasing auditory frequencies.
- The influence of target velocity and pre-cueing on pitch memory displacement was analyzed.
Main Results:
- Memory for auditory pitch was displaced in the direction of pitch motion.
- This auditory Fröhlich effect increased with faster pitch velocity.
- The effect was larger for descending than ascending pitch, suggesting representational gravity.
Conclusions:
- Auditory frequency representation exhibits biases similar to visual spatial representation.
- Findings support theories of attention in displacement and crossmodal spatial representation.
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