Subject: Echoic memory and answers reliability From: Massimo Grassi <grassi(at)PSY.UNIPD.IT> Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 16:36:57 +0100Dear list, I have a question to ask: I'm doing an experiment on pitch perception. The stimuli are musical interval pairs (1.5 seconds of duration for each interval, 1.75 seconds of inter-stimuli). In this experiment the subject (a non musician) has to indicate, for each pair, witch interval he/she prefers. After about twenty trial many listeners have some difficult to give their responses. I think that probably, the echoic memory of the pairs heard influences their actual perception as when we go in a perfumery and we smell different perfumes. In fact, it can happen that the listener chooses, as more musical, one particular stimulus during the first half of the experiment and, in the second half of the experiment or after a pause, he/she changes his preferences to another stimulus. This, obviously, is a very important problem for the reliability of the subject's answers. I will be happy if someone knows researches that speak about this problem, furthermore if someone has some suggestion to solve this situation. Thanks in advance for your help. Massimo %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Massimo Grassi Department of General Psychology via Venezia 8 - 35131 - Padova - Italy Phone +39 +49 +8276928 (lab) Fax +39 +49 +8276600 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Email to AUDITORY should now be sent to AUDITORY(at)lists.mcgill.ca LISTSERV commands should be sent to listserv(at)lists.mcgill.ca Information is available on the WEB at http://www.mcgill.ca/cc/listserv