Bausenhart, K. M., Rolke, B., & Ulrich, R. (2007). Knowing when to hear aids what to hear. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60(12), 1610–1615.
Presentation: Shelly
Summary: Chris
This paper investigated whether temporal preparation facilitated perceptual processing in the auditory domain. Experiment 1 investigated the influence of temporal preparation on pitch discrimination. The foreperiod duration of a stimulus varied (800 ms vs. 2400 ms). Results showed that temporal preparation helped pitch discrimination because it is easier to expect the occurrence of target stimulus. However, the result of Experiment 1 faced one challenge. Since the ISI was short, it was easier for short-term memory to compare and to form representation. Therefore, Experiment 2 was designed to rule out the short-term memory interpretation in Experiment 1. Results of Experiment 2 were similar to that of Experiment 1. The conclusion was that temporal preparation facilitated not only motor processing, but also perceptual processing. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the role of temporal preparation for any complete account of attention in the auditory domain. The present result has an important implication for theorizing about the role of attention in audition.
