Human auditory memory cannot compare sounds separated by more than a few seconds

Evidence

This research was conducted with produced audio content, where the reference was 5.1 surround audio reproduction. In the most general case, the reference should be a real acoustic scenario, such as a case where sound sources are located around the listener in 3D, with natural reverberation arriving from all directions to the listener. Should the reproduction of such a case be targeted and the obtained authenticity measured, a major problem emerges. The perception of the original scenario must be compared to reproduction in a listening room, requiring that the subject is moved between the listening room and the original room to make the comparison. Unfortunately, the human auditory memory is too short to make accurate comparisons with delays of more than a few seconds between perceptions. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2376

Categorization

• XREF: This limits of auditory memory constraint matters for A/B testing methodology generally, also relevant to the Milgrom institutional work on information constraints.