Change deafness and object encoding with recognizable and unrecognizable sounds

Authors

Melissa K. Gregg, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Vanessa C. Irsik, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Joel S. Snyder, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2014

Publication Title

Neuropsychologia

Volume

61

First page number:

19

Last page number:

30

Abstract

Change deafness is the failure to notice changes in an auditory scene. In this study, we sought to determine if change deafness is a perceptual error, rather than only a reflection of verbal memory limitations. We also examined how successful encoding of objects within a scene is related to successful detection of changes. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while listeners completed a change-detection and an object-encoding task with scenes composed of recognizable sounds or unrecognizable temporally scrambled versions of the recognizable sounds. More change deafness occurred for the unrecognizable, compared to recognizable sounds, indicating that change deafness is a perceptual error and not solely a product of verbal memory. ERPs from both the recognizable and unrecognizable scenes revealed an enhanced P3b (at PZ/1/2, POZ/3/4 from 350 to 750 ms) to detected changes, a marker that conscious change detection has occurred. Recognizable scenes resulted in an enhanced T400 (at T8/TP8, C6/CP6 from 315 to 660 ms) to detected changes, possibly indicating activation of established memory representations. Unrecognizable scenes elicited an enhanced P3a (at FCZ/1/2 from 280 to 600 ms) to detected changes, indicating enhanced orienting to acoustic change. Performance on the object-encoding task revealed that change deafness was reduced, but not eliminated, when performance on the object-encoding task was accurate.

Keywords

Auditory scene analysis; Change deafness; Change detection; Event-related potentials

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences | Psychiatry and Psychology | Psychological Phenomena and Processes

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or use interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the article. Publisher copyright policy allows author to archive post-print (author’s final manuscript). When post-print is available or publisher policy changes, the article will be deposited

Repository Citation

Gregg, M. K., Irsik, V. C., Snyder, J. S. (2014). Change deafness and object encoding with recognizable and unrecognizable sounds. Neuropsychologia, 61 19-30.