Central load reduces peripheral processing: Evidence from incidental memory of background speech.
Is there a trade-off between central (working memory) load and peripheral (perceptual) processing? To address this question, participants were requested to undertake an n-back task in one of two levels of central/cognitive load (i.e., 1-back or 2-back) in the presence of a to-be-ignored story presented via headphones. Participants were told to ignore the background story, but they were given a surprise memory test of what had been said in the background story, immediately after the n-back task was completed. Memory was poorer in the high central load (2-back) condition in comparison with the low central load (1-back) condition. Hence, when people compensate for higher central load, by increasing attentional engagement, peripheral processing is constrained. Moreover, participants with high working memory capacity (WMC) - with a superior ability for attentional engagement - remembered less of the background story, but only in the low central load condition. Taken together, peripheral processing - as indexed by incidental memory of background speech - is constrained when task engagement is high.
Department of Building, Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Gävle, Gävle, Sweden.
Niklas
N
Halin
Department of Building, Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Gävle, Gävle, Sweden.|School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK.
John E
JE
Marsh
Department of Building, Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Gävle, Gävle, Sweden.
Patrik
P
Sörqvist
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
Cognitive load; attention; memory; task engagement; working memory capacity