Mental ability and event-related potentials in an auditory oddball task with backward masking: From description to explanation

Abstract

The relation between mental ability and speed of auditory discrimination was investigated during an auditory oddball task with backward masking. Behavioural and electrophysiological data were collected from 58 females. Across target discrimination conditions that varied in the interval between the target and the masking stimuli and in the tonal frequency of the target and masking stimuli, HA participants displayed faster RT and more accurate discriminations than LA participants. HA participants also had shorter P300 and MMN latency and larger P300 amplitude than LA participants. The effects suggest that the speed of accessing STM is faster for HA than LA participants. Moreover, the pattern of results obtained with these data eschews task difficulty effects that would endorse a sensory discrimination hypothesis.