Can auditory memory for tone pitch be rehearsed?

This study investigated whether nonverbal auditory memory representations can be affected by rehearsal strategies. The comparison of the pitches of 2 tones separated by a silent, variable delay interval was examined in 2 experiments, both when participants were instructed to rehearse the pitch of the first tone covertly during the intertone interval and when such rehearsal was prevented by 1 of 2 attention-demanding distractor tasks. In both experiments, delayed tone comparison performance was superior when participants were permitted to rehearse, and the type of distractor task (verbal vs. auditory) had no effect on performance under distraction instructions. The results suggest that auditory imagery can be used strategically to slow the rate of decay of auditory information for tone pitch.