The effect of blanking on the identification of temporal order in three-tone sequences

Abstract

Trained subjects were asked to identify the temporal order of three 20-msec tones (891, 1,000, and 1,118 Hz), which were immediately followed by a fourth tone. It was found that this added tone, irrelevant to the observer's task, decreased the identifiability of the preceding three-tone pattern, as compared with that of the same pattern in isolation. Such a blanking of the memory of the three-tone sequence was most effective when the frequency of the fourth tone was either identical to that of the first pattern tone or when it lay 1/6-1/3 octave above the highest pattern frequency. The blanking effect was strongest when the duration of the fourth tone was equal to that of the pattern components. © 1975 Psychonomic Society, Inc.