Attention to memory: Asymmetric enhancement of mnemonic features in auditory working memory

Abstract

Models of auditory attention propose that multiple sound features are integrated into a perceptual object and that selective attention enhances the fidelity of these object-based representations. Similar attentional mechanisms appear to operate on representations held in auditory working memory, yet evidence has largely focused on a single feature. Thus, it remains unknown whether redirecting attention to an auditory memory object enhances multiple, distinct features bound to that object, or whether such enhancement varies across features depending on modality-specific biases or prior knowledge of the to-be-probed feature. Here, we investigated whether retrospective attention improves the mnemonic fidelity of two features—pitch and spatial location—associated with speech objects using psychophysical modeling. Participants encoded two syllables varying in both pitch and location and received valid (vs. neutral) retroactive cues during retention. They then judged a change in one of the two features of the cued syllable. Two groups performed the same task but differed in whether they knew which feature would be probed. Across groups, valid retro-cues facilitated faster judgments of both features, with larger benefits when the to-be-probed feature was known. However, cue-related improvements in accuracy and perceptual precision emerged only for pitch, not spatial location, regardless of feature awareness. This asymmetry suggests that retrospective attention does not uniformly enhance all features of auditory memory objects, but favors auditory identity-related features, such as pitch, over spatial information. These findings demonstrate that attention and memory interact differently across feature dimensions, revealing limits on how object-based attention operates over auditory working memory.