Interference by process, not content, determines semantic auditory distraction.
Distraction by irrelevant background sound of visually-based cognitive tasks illustrates the vulnerability of attentional selectivity across modalities. Four experiments centred on auditory distraction during tests of memory for visually-presented semantic information. Meaningful irrelevant speech disrupted the free recall of semantic category-exemplars more than meaningless irrelevant sound (Experiment 1). This effect was exacerbated when the irrelevant speech was semantically related to the to-be-remembered material (Experiment 2). Importantly, however, these effects of meaningfulness and semantic relatedness were shown to arise only when instructions emphasized recall by category rather than by serial order (Experiments 3 and 4). The results favor a process-oriented, rather than a structural, approach to the breakdown of attentional selectivity and forgetting: performance is impaired by the similarity of process brought to bear on the relevant and irrelevant material, not the similarity in item content.
Marsh
John E
JE
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK. marshje@cardiff.ac.uk
Hughes
Robert W
RW
Jones
Dylan M
DM
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D055815:Young Adult