Effects of Auditory Simulation and Personality Types on Working Memory

Abstract

Working memory is very crucial as it influences higher cognition. We conducted a study testing auditory simulations effect on working memory while considering personality type. 161 participants college students did the Eysenck personality questionnaire (EPQ-R) as a pretest, followed by reading a prose with an auditory simulation based assigned group (pop, classical, white noise and silence). Then they answered multiple-choice questions based on the prose in silence. We found that pop and classical groups did better, although the difference across groups was not significant. Hence auditory simulations have no negative or significant positive effects on working memory, furthermore, unlike previous studies, personality didn’t affect performance. Future studies can consider participants’ preferences and context-dependent memory to better explore this phenomenon.