Spatial coordinates of human auditory working memory.

The accuracy of localizing remembered sound sources was investigated by employing a delayed-response task, where a small light spot, projected onto a screen by a laser diode attached to the head, had to be spatially aligned with either actual or remembered stimulus positions. Systematic errors indicated overestimation of the eccentricity of remembered targets compared to direct stimulus localization. This overestimation increased with prolonged response delay, suggesting that the coordinates of memorized space are distorted with respect to perceived actual sound location and that this distortion increases as a function of time.