Nameability effects and short-term memory limitations on order perception and enumeration of brief sounds

by Anna-Maria Psarompa, Fotios Fotiadis, Argiro Vatakis

Research has shown that perceiving the order of successive auditory stimuli could be affected by their nameability. The present research re-examined this hypothesis, using tasks requiring participants to report the order of successively presented (with no interstimulus gaps) environmental (i.e., easily named stimuli) and abstract (i.e., hard-to-name stimuli) sounds of short duration (i.e., 200 ms). Using the same sequences, we also examined the accuracy of the sounds perceived by administering enumeration tasks. Data analyses showed that accuracy in the ordering tasks was equally low for both environmental and abstract sounds, whereas accuracy in the enumeration tasks was higher for the former as compared to the latter sounds. Importantly, overall accuracy in the enumeration tasks did not reach ceiling levels, suggesting some limitations in the perception of successively presented stimuli. Overall, naming fluency seemed to affect sound enumeration, but no effects were obtained for order perception. Furthermore, an effect of each sound’s location in a sequence on ordering accuracy was noted. Our results question earlier notions suggesting that order perception is mediated by stimuli’s nameability and leave open the possibility that memory capacity limits may play a role.