Previous studies of visual spatial attention have found that attentional benefits are distributed as a gradient relative to an attended location. Further visual investigations of spatial attention have found that there are important interactions between the contents of a short-term memory (STM) load and the distribution of attention. These phenomena have been much less studied in the auditory domain. The present study aims to investigate the effects of a spatial STM load on attentional distribution in the auditory domain. Attention was directed by auditory targets that required a button-press response, and could appear at one of five spatial locations. Factors of target location, STM load, hemispace, and musical experience were analyzed with measures of accuracy and reaction time in response to targets. Results demonstrated a robust influence of STM load and target stimulus location on how auditory attention was allocated across space. Overall, these results suggest that different attentional profiles under conditions of STM load may be impacted by the type of representations held in STM, the features of these representations, and musical experience.
