ABSTRACT
Sensory memory is comparable in numerous respects to classical short-term memory. There seems to be, however, a major difference between categorical and sensory storage: Categorical storage can be enhanced with rehearsal techniques, while it seems that this is not the case for sensory storage. The slope of the psychometric function (PF) is higher for the 0.5-s retention interval than for the 6-s conditions, indicating a decay of the precision of the pitch trace during these 6 seconds. The slope of the PF is comparable for the three different rehearsal conditions with the 6-s retention interval. The rehearsal process appears to be comparable to a random walk process, thus not helping to maintain a precise pitch memory trace. Errors during overt rehearsing were good predictors of final decision errors. Predictive errors increased over time, echoing thus the degradation of the trace that takes place during the retention interval.
