Human cognitive neuroscience seminar

Speaker: Catherine Jordan & Ilaria Taglialatela Scafati

Topic: Ilaria: Working memory and conscious awareness: Data from a new experimental paradigm

Abstract: Working Memory can be conceived as a mental workspace holding and manipulating a limited amount of recently acquired information for a limited time. Some researchers assume that it is tightly coupled with Conscious Awareness (e.g.Baars & Franklin, 2003; Cowan, 2016; Dudai, 2004; Kintsch, & al., 1999), commonly defined in experimental studies as the ability to report the content of perception or of memory. However this close relationship is not clearly understood (Eriksson, 2015), and some researchers argue that working memory includes cognitive processes of which the participant is not conscious (e.g. Della Sala et al., 2010; Logie, 2016). The experimental work described here was designed to assess the possible role in Working Memory of stimuli of which the participant is not aware and thereby to consider whether working memory involves non-conscious processes as well as the conscious processes that are more widely studied.. Results indicate that further exploration is needed and highlight the challenges and possibilities implied in unconscious cognition studies.

Topic: Catherine: Exploring the existence of a tonal loop in Musicians and Non-Musicians

Abstract: Four experiments investigated the role of musical expertise on processing and temporary maintenance of tone sequences. Previous research reported articulatory suppression interfered with storage of verbal rather than tone sequences (Koelsch et al, 2009), suggesting a “tonal loop” within a musician’s working memory (Schulze, Zysset, Mueller, Friederici, & Koelsch, 2010) that complements the phonological loop for verbal material (Baddeley, 1986; 1992). The experiments explored pitch recognition performance without or with articulatory or singing suppression. For auditory tonal (in a musical key) sequences, singing suppression impaired non-musicians more than musicians, only non-musicians were affected by articulatory suppression. For visual tonal sequences, musicians were impaired by singing suppression but not by articulatory suppression. For auditory atonal (no musical key) sequences, non-musicians performed at floor, and musicians were more impaired by singing suppression than by articulatory suppression.  In contrast, for visual atonal sequences, musicians were more impaired by articulatory suppression than singing suppression. These results suggest that musicians use their musical knowledge, coupled with subvocal singing for tonal sequences, but for atonal sequences, both subvocal singing and phonological rehearsal may be used. Non-musicians may rely on musical knowledge and subvocal singing for tonal sequences but are unable to do so for atonal sequences. Results are consistent with the use of a tonal loop for rehearsal of tone sequences that develops with musical training but draws on subvocal rehearsal within the phonological loop, especially for atonal sequences.