Very good posts thanks !
I will add that not only aural memory can be improved but also must be learned with the body sensation not with only the brain or the mind but with the heart... Why?
Because mechanisms of memory are linked to perception and interpretation of sound which are themselves related to the feeling body and are stored in this body not only in the brain or mind...
The sound of a duduk is unmistakable for example and provoke a feeling you will never forget, same with the chinese Erhu, wich are insruments with a timbre linked to an innate feeling so powerful we cannot forget it....Same with guitar, organ, piano etc....Any sound is associated with a distinct feeling varying in each of us for sure but not so much, it is the reason why music is a universal language...
Each instrument is deep in meaning and unique like a human voice....
It is the reason why doctor can reach alzheimer patient with music and for a moment ressuscitate a true part of them from oblivion...The sound feeling perceived by their body BEFORE their mind even interpret it, ressuscitate their consciousness for a fleeting moment by association with their past experiences with music...
It is the reason by "measuring tool fetichist " often claim that sound memory is measured in few seconds and cannot be remembered... This is not false, this is only an half-truth used for "ideological" cultist motivation...
For sure a bit of sound WITHOUT MEANING detached from our usual environment and detached from strong feeling cannot be remembered well...Pick a sound meaning you very well know by "heart" not only mind, and listen continuously IN A RELAXED condition to it in your usual environment and you will KNOW and DETECT any change in the sound qualities...Even if you had not listen some piece of recording for weeks and you put it after having changed the acoustic of your room you may detect huge change... i just live that a few minutes before writing this post myself with a recording i know by heart but which i did not listen to for a few months...
it is my own experience and experiments...
How do you think i was able to tune mechanically adjustable100 Helmholtz tubes resonators and diffusers in my room ?
No i am not a bat nor a " golden ear".... I know my hearing are the hearing of a 70 years old man in health for sure but...But we memorize acoustic MEANING in our body/brain not ONLY brute meaningless sound measured in Hertz and decibels...
I was able to tune my room with my feeling and perceptive memory, stored in my brain/body of what must be a natural timbre...For sure it is not perfect.... Timbre perception is a SUBJECTIVE phenomenon in psycho-acoustic... But there exist OBJECTIVE acoustical conditions necessary to be inplemented to generate a more natural timbre perception...The rest is my CORRELATION process between many objective preparation and disposition of the room and my subjective apparatus..
Aural memory is the result of a learning process, and an ability that we can develop just as any other cognitive function. Improving it is the same as learning a new skill.
When there is effort put in, it can be vastly improved upon, and conversely, lack of training will result in the decline of aural memory faculties.
Just as we can remember words, colors, pictures, we remember sounds with analogous mechanisms. A person who can retain a 7 digit number for 10 seconds can train to withhold it in memory for an hour or longer, eventually retaining the ability to call back the number after a longer time period, and with increased digit counts.
Same with aural memory.
As every learned skill, it takes a lot of effort....some people have a head-start, but ultimately perseverance is key, and is the secret to a good aural memory.
A/B test cannot substitute an acute aural memory.... perhaps with an A/B selector switch we can cut out the time-caused retention-loss... yet, in case the aural perception and memory is so poor that it fades in seconds, then the detail observation skills are also comparatively abysmal. In consequence, the A/B tester with poor aural skills does not have the cognitive faculties to perform the test in a competent way.
