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Gustafson SJ, Nelson L, Silcox JW. Effect of Auditory Distractors on Speech Recognition and Listening Effort. Ear Hear 2023; 44:1121-1132. [PMID: 36935395 PMCID: PMC10440215 DOI: 10.1097/aud.0000000000001356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/21/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Everyday listening environments are filled with competing noise and distractors. Although significant research has examined the effect of competing noise on speech recognition and listening effort, little is understood about the effect of distraction. The framework for understanding effortful listening recognizes the importance of attention-related processes in speech recognition and listening effort; however, it underspecifies the role that they play, particularly with respect to distraction. The load theory of attention predicts that resources will be automatically allocated to processing a distractor, but only if perceptual load in the listening task is low enough. If perceptual load is high (i.e., listening in noise), then resources that would otherwise be allocated to processing a distractor are used to overcome the increased perceptual load and are unavailable for distractor processing. Although there is ample evidence for this theory in the visual domain, there has been little research investigating how the load theory of attention may apply to speech processing. In this study, we sought to measure the effect of distractors on speech recognition and listening effort and to evaluate whether the load theory of attention can be used to understand a listener's resource allocation in the presence of distractors. DESIGN Fifteen adult listeners participated in a monosyllabic words repetition task. Test stimuli were presented in quiet or in competing speech (+5 dB signal-to-noise ratio) and in distractor or no distractor conditions. In conditions with distractors, auditory distractors were presented before the target words on 24% of the trials in quiet and in noise. Percent-correct was recorded as speech recognition, and verbal response time (VRT) was recorded as a measure of listening effort. RESULTS A significant interaction was present for speech recognition, showing reduced speech recognition when distractors were presented in the quiet condition but no effect of distractors when noise was present. VRTs were significantly longer when distractors were present, regardless of listening condition. CONCLUSIONS Consistent with the load theory of attention, distractors significantly reduced speech recognition in the low-perceptual load condition (i.e., listening in quiet) but did not impact speech recognition scores in conditions of high perceptual load (i.e., listening in noise). The increases in VRTs in the presence of distractors in both low- and high-perceptual load conditions (i.e., quiet and noise) suggest that the load theory of attention may not apply to listening effort. However, the large effect of distractors on VRT in both conditions is consistent with the previous work demonstrating that distraction-related shifts of attention can delay processing of the target task. These findings also fit within the framework for understanding effortful listening, which proposes that involuntary attentional shifts result in a depletion of cognitive resources, leaving less resources readily available to process the signal of interest; resulting in increased listening effort (i.e., elongated VRT).
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Affiliation(s)
- Samantha J Gustafson
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
- These authors contributed equally to this work
| | - Loren Nelson
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
- These authors contributed equally to this work
| | - Jack W Silcox
- Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
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2
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Lorents A, Ruitenberg M, Schomaker J. Novelty-induced memory boosts in humans: The when and how. Heliyon 2023; 9:e14410. [PMID: 36942255 PMCID: PMC10023963 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2022] [Revised: 02/24/2023] [Accepted: 03/03/2023] [Indexed: 03/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Novel information potentially signals danger or reward and behavioral and psychophysiological studies have suggested that the brain prioritizes its processing. Some effects of novelty even go beyond the stimulus itself. Studies in animals have robustly shown that exposure to novel stimulation can promote memory for information presented before or after this exposure. Research regarding effects of novelty on memory in humans is lagging, but in the last few years, several studies have emerged that suggest that memory-facilitating effects of novelty also exist in humans. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of these studies. We identified several factors that have been shown to influence whether novelty promotes memory or not, including the timing between the novel experience and the learning events, the involvement with the novel material, and population characteristics (such as clinical diagnosis or age). Finally, we link the behavioral findings to potential neurobiological mechanisms and discuss the relevance of specific findings in light of potential clinical and educational applications that could leverage novelty to improve memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- A. Lorents
- Department of Health Medical and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands
| | - M.F.L. Ruitenberg
- Department of Health Medical and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, the Netherlands
| | - J. Schomaker
- Department of Health Medical and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, the Netherlands
- Corresponding author. Department of Health Medical and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands.
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3
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Hall JM, Park HRP, Krebs RM, Schomaker J. The effect of target-related and target-irrelevant novel stimuli on response behaviour. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2023; 232:103818. [PMID: 36577334 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103818] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2022] [Revised: 11/24/2022] [Accepted: 12/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Novel events catch our attention, which can influence performance of a task. Whether this attentional capture by novelty benefits or impairs performance depends on several factors, such as the relevance of the stimulus, task requirements, and the timing of the event. Additionally, it has been argued that novel stimuli can hold intrinsic reward value, which may directly affect approach motivation, similar to positive valence stimuli. This link between novelty and approach/avoid behaviour has not been investigated directly. Here, we investigated whether stimulus novelty interacts with response behaviour in an approach/avoidance task, and whether these effects depend on the task relevance of novelty and stimulus timing. In experiment 1, participants gave an approach or avoid response dependent on a shape (diamond or square) presented at different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) following a novel or familiar scene (target-irrelevant novelty). In experiment 2, participants had to approach or avoid a novel or familiar image depending on the content (indoor/outdoor; target-related novelty). A shape was presented at different SOA. Results of a linear mixed model showed novelty-induced performance costs as demonstrated by longer RT and lower accuracy when novelty was target-relevant, likely due to attentional lingering at novel images. When images were target-irrelevant, approach but not avoid responses were faster for familiar versus novel images at 200 ms SOA only. Thus, novelty had a differentially pronounced detrimental effect on performance. These observations confirm that processing of novel stimuli generally depends on stimulus relevance, and tentatively suggests that differential processing of novel and familiar images is intensified by motivated approach behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie M Hall
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium; Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Section Health, Medical & Neuropsychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands.
| | - Haeme R P Park
- Neuroscience Research Australia, University of New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ruth M Krebs
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
| | - Judith Schomaker
- Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Section Health, Medical & Neuropsychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands
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4
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Parmentier FBR, Fraga I, Leiva A, Ferré P. Distraction by deviant sounds: disgusting and neutral words capture attention to the same extent. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2019; 84:1801-1814. [PMID: 31053888 PMCID: PMC7478951 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-019-01192-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2018] [Accepted: 04/20/2019] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Several studies have argued that words evoking negative emotions, such as disgust, grab attention more than neutral words, and leave traces in memory that are more persistent. However, these conclusions are typically based on tasks requiring participants to process the semantic content of these words in a voluntarily manner. We sought to compare the involuntary attention grabbing power of disgusting and neutral words using them as rare and unexpected auditory distractors in a cross-modal oddball task, and then probing the participants’ memory for these stimuli in a surprise recognition task. Frequentist and Bayesian analyses converged to show that, compared to a standard tone, disgusting and neutral auditory words produced significant but equivalent levels of distraction in a visual categorization task, that they elicited comparable levels of memory discriminability in the incidental recognition task, and that the participants’ individual sensitivity to disgust did not influence the results. Our results suggest that distraction by unexpected words is not modulated by their emotional valence, at least when these words are task-irrelevant and are temporally and perceptually decoupled from the target stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrice B R Parmentier
- Department of Psychology and Research Institute for Health Sciences (iUNICS), Ed. Cientifico-Tecnico (iUNICS), University of the Balearic Islands, Ctra de Valldemossa, km 75, 07122, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain. .,Balearic Islands Health Research Institute (IdISBa), Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain. .,School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
| | - Isabel Fraga
- Cognitive Processes and Behavior Research Group, Department of Social Psychology, Basic Psychology and Methodology, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Alicia Leiva
- Department of Psychology and Research Institute for Health Sciences (iUNICS), Ed. Cientifico-Tecnico (iUNICS), University of the Balearic Islands, Ctra de Valldemossa, km 75, 07122, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain.,Balearic Islands Health Research Institute (IdISBa), Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain
| | - Pilar Ferré
- Department of Psychology and CRAMC, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain
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5
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Marsja E, Marsh JE, Hansson P, Neely G. Examining the Role of Spatial Changes in Bimodal and Uni-Modal To-Be-Ignored Stimuli and How They Affect Short-Term Memory Processes. Front Psychol 2019; 10:299. [PMID: 30914983 PMCID: PMC6421315 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00299] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2018] [Accepted: 01/30/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
This study examines the potential vulnerability of short-term memory processes to distraction by spatial changes within to-be-ignored bimodal, vibratory, and auditory stimuli. Participants were asked to recall sequences of serially presented digits or locations of dots while being exposed to to-be-ignored stimuli. On unexpected occasions, the bimodal to-be-ignored sequence, vibratory to-be-ignored sequence, or auditory to-be-ignored sequence changed their spatial origin from one side of the body (e.g., ear and arm, arm only, ear only) to the other. It was expected that the bimodal stimuli would make the spatial change more salient compared to that of the uni-modal stimuli and that this, in turn, would yield an increase in distraction of serial short-term memory in both the verbal and spatial domains. Our results support this assumption as a disruptive effect of the spatial deviant was only observed when presented within the bimodal to-be-ignored sequence: uni-modal to-be-ignored sequences, whether vibratory: or auditory, had no impact on either verbal or spatial short-term memory. Implications for models of attention capture and the potential special attention capturing role of bimodal stimuli are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erik Marsja
- Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
| | - John E Marsh
- School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom
| | | | - Gregory Neely
- Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
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6
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Do theta oscillations explain the somatosensory change detection mechanism? Biol Psychol 2019; 143:103-112. [PMID: 30771407 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.02.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2018] [Revised: 12/13/2018] [Accepted: 02/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Recent research has indicated that the mismatch negativity (MMN) is elicited in response to a discernible small change of a somatosensory stimulus applied on the hand. However, the neural mechanism for detecting small change of somatosensory stimulus remains unknown. In the present study, we developed a novel pressure stimulation device using air jet applied on the index finger pad, and determined the just noticeable differences (JNDs) of pressure discrimination for each subject. Using the deviant-standard-reversed oddball paradigm, we analyzed the average dynamic changes in MMN amplitude and changes of evoked spectral power. We found a clear MMN component at the frontal and central regions at 100-300 msec after deviant stimulus presentation. Statistical tests showed that theta band activity played pivotal roles in the generation of the MMN elicited by a change in somatosensory pressure stimulation. Our results indicate that the somatosensory discriminatory process reflected on MMN is accompanied by phase-locked oscillation at the theta frequency.
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7
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Vasilev MR, Parmentier FB, Angele B, Kirkby JA. Distraction by deviant sounds during reading: An eye-movement study. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2018; 72:1863-1875. [PMID: 30518304 PMCID: PMC6613176 DOI: 10.1177/1747021818820816] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/02/2022]
Abstract
Oddball studies have shown that sounds unexpectedly deviating from an otherwise repeated sequence capture attention away from the task at hand. While such distraction is typically regarded as potentially important in everyday life, previous work has so far not examined how deviant sounds affect performance on more complex daily tasks. In this study, we developed a new method to examine whether deviant sounds can disrupt reading performance by recording participants’ eye movements. Participants read single sentences in silence and while listening to task-irrelevant sounds. In the latter condition, a 50-ms sound was played contingent on the fixation of five target words in the sentence. On most occasions, the same tone was presented (standard sound), whereas on rare and unexpected occasions it was replaced by white noise (deviant sound). The deviant sound resulted in significantly longer fixation durations on the target words relative to the standard sound. A time-course analysis showed that the deviant sound began to affect fixation durations around 180 ms after fixation onset. Furthermore, deviance distraction was not modulated by the lexical frequency of target words. In summary, fixation durations on the target words were longer immediately after the presentation of the deviant sound, but there was no evidence that it interfered with the lexical processing of these words. The present results are in line with the recent proposition that deviant sounds yield a temporary motor suppression and suggest that deviant sounds likely inhibit the programming of the next saccade.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Fabrice Br Parmentier
- 2 University of the Balearic Islands, Department of Psychology and Research Institute for Health Sciences (iUNICS), Palma, Spain.,3 Balearic Islands Health Research Institute (IdISBa), Palma, Spain.,4 University of Western Australia, School of Psychology, Perth, WA, Australia
| | - Bernhard Angele
- 1 Bournemouth University, Department of Psychology, Poole, UK
| | - Julie A Kirkby
- 1 Bournemouth University, Department of Psychology, Poole, UK
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8
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Marsja E, Neely G, Ljungberg JK. Investigating Deviance Distraction and the Impact of the Modality of the To-Be-Ignored Stimuli. Exp Psychol 2018; 65:61-70. [PMID: 29631521 DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000390] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
It has been suggested that deviance distraction is caused by unexpected sensory events in the to-be-ignored stimuli violating the cognitive system's predictions of incoming stimuli. The majority of research has used methods where the to-be-ignored expected (standards) and the unexpected (deviants) stimuli are presented within the same modality. Less is known about the behavioral impact of deviance distraction when the to-be-ignored stimuli are presented in different modalities (e.g., standard and deviants presented in different modalities). In three experiments using cross-modal oddball tasks with mixed-modality to-be-ignored stimuli, we examined the distractive role of unexpected auditory deviants presented in a continuous stream of expected standard vibrations. The results showed that deviance distraction seems to be dependent upon the to-be-ignored stimuli being presented within the same modality, and that the simplest omission of something expected; in this case, a standard vibration may be enough to capture attention and distract performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erik Marsja
- 1 Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Sweden
| | | | - Jessica K Ljungberg
- 1 Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Sweden.,2 School of Psychology, Cardiff University, UK
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9
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Parmentier FBR, Pacheco-Unguetti AP, Valero S. Food words distract the hungry: Evidence of involuntary semantic processing of task-irrelevant but biologically-relevant unexpected auditory words. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0190644. [PMID: 29300763 PMCID: PMC5754127 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190644] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2017] [Accepted: 12/18/2017] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Rare changes in a stream of otherwise repeated task-irrelevant sounds break through selective attention and disrupt performance in an unrelated visual task by triggering shifts of attention to and from the deviant sound (deviance distraction). Evidence indicates that the involuntary orientation of attention to unexpected sounds is followed by their semantic processing. However, past demonstrations relied on tasks in which the meaning of the deviant sounds overlapped with features of the primary task. Here we examine whether such processing is observed when no such overlap is present but sounds carry some relevance to the participants’ biological need to eat when hungry. We report the results of an experiment in which hungry and satiated participants partook in a cross-modal oddball task in which they categorized visual digits (odd/even) while ignoring task-irrelevant sounds. On most trials the irrelevant sound was a sinewave tone (standard sound). On the remaining trials, deviant sounds consisted of spoken words related to food (food deviants) or control words (control deviants). Questionnaire data confirmed state (but not trait) differences between the two groups with respect to food craving, as well as a greater desire to eat the food corresponding to the food-related words in the hungry relative to the satiated participants. The results of the oddball task revealed that food deviants produced greater distraction (longer response times) than control deviants in hungry participants while the reverse effect was observed in satiated participants. This effect was observed in the first block of trials but disappeared thereafter, reflecting semantic saturation. Our results suggest that (1) the semantic content of deviant sounds is involuntarily processed even when sharing no feature with the primary task; and that (2) distraction by deviant sounds can be modulated by the participants’ biological needs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrice B. R. Parmentier
- Neuropsychology & Cognition Group, Department of Psychology and Research Institute for Health Sciences (iUNICS), University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain
- Balearic Islands Health Research Institute (IdISBa), Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain
- School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Antonia P. Pacheco-Unguetti
- Neuropsychology & Cognition Group, Department of Psychology and Research Institute for Health Sciences (iUNICS), University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain
- Centro de Psicología Pacheco Unguetti, Granada, Spain
| | - Sara Valero
- Neuropsychology & Cognition Group, Department of Psychology and Research Institute for Health Sciences (iUNICS), University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain
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10
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Yan T, Feng Y, Liu T, Wang L, Mu N, Dong X, Liu Z, Qin T, Tang X, Zhao L. Theta Oscillations Related to Orientation Recognition in Unattended Condition: A vMMN Study. Front Behav Neurosci 2017; 11:166. [PMID: 28936165 PMCID: PMC5595151 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2016] [Accepted: 08/21/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Orientation is one of the important elements of objects that can influence visual processing. In this study, we examined whether changes in orientation could be detected automatically under unattended condition. Visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) was used to analyze this processing. In addition, we investigated the underlying neural oscillatory activity. Non-phase-locked spectral power was used to explore the specific frequency related to unexpected changes in orientation. The experiment consisted of standard (0° arrows) and deviant (90°/270° arrows) stimuli. Compared with standard stimuli, deviant stimuli elicited a larger N170 component (negative wave approximately 170 ms after the stimuli started) and a smaller P2 component (positive wave approximately 200 ms after the stimuli started). Furthermore, vMMN was obtained by subtracting the event-related potential (ERP) waveforms in response to standard stimuli from those elicited in response to deviant stimuli. According to the time–frequency analysis, deviant stimuli elicited enhanced band power compared with standard stimuli in the delta and theta bands. Compared with previous studies, we concluded that theta activity plays an important role in the generation of the vMMN induced by changes in orientation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianyi Yan
- School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of TechnologyBeijing, China
| | - Yuan Feng
- School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of TechnologyBeijing, China
| | - Tiantian Liu
- School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of TechnologyBeijing, China
| | - Luyao Wang
- Intelligent Robotics Institute, School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of TechnologyBeijing, China
| | - Nan Mu
- School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of TechnologyBeijing, China
| | - Xiaonan Dong
- School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of TechnologyBeijing, China
| | - Zichuan Liu
- Saddle River Day SchoolSaddle River, NJ, United States
| | | | - Xiaoying Tang
- School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of TechnologyBeijing, China
| | - Lun Zhao
- School of Education, Beijing Normal University ZhuhaiZhuhai, China.,School of Psychological Research, Beijing Yiran Sunny Technology Co., Ltd.Beijing, China
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11
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Causse M, Peysakhovich V, Fabre EF. High Working Memory Load Impairs Language Processing during a Simulated Piloting Task: An ERP and Pupillometry Study. Front Hum Neurosci 2016; 10:240. [PMID: 27252639 PMCID: PMC4879132 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2016.00240] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2015] [Accepted: 05/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Given the important amount of visual and auditory linguistic information that pilots have to process, operating an aircraft generates a high working-memory load (WML). In this context, the ability to focus attention on relevant information and to remain responsive to concurrent stimuli might be altered. Consequently, understanding the effects of WML on the processing of both linguistic targets and distractors is of particular interest in the study of pilot performance. In the present work, participants performed a simplified piloting task in which they had to follow one of three colored aircraft, according to specific written instructions (i.e., the written word for the color corresponding to the color of one of the aircraft) and to ignore either congruent or incongruent concurrent auditory distractors (i.e., a spoken name of color). The WML was manipulated with an n-back sub-task. Participants were instructed to apply the current written instruction in the low WML condition, and the 2-back written instruction in the high WML condition. Electrophysiological results revealed a major effect of WML at behavioral (i.e., decline of piloting performance), electrophysiological, and autonomic levels (i.e., greater pupil diameter). Increased WML consumed resources that could not be allocated to the processing of the linguistic stimuli, as indexed by lower P300/P600 amplitudes. Also, significantly, lower P600 responses were measured in incongruent vs. congruent trials in the low WML condition, showing a higher difficulty reorienting attention toward the written instruction, but this effect was canceled in the high WML condition. This suppression of interference in the high load condition is in line with the engagement/distraction trade-off model. We propose that P300/P600 components could be reliable indicators of WML and that they allow an estimation of its impact on the processing of linguistic stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mickaël Causse
- Département Conception et Conduite des Véhicules Aéronautiques et Spatiaux, Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'EspaceToulouse, France; Ecole de Psychologie, Université LavalQuébec, QC, Canada
| | - Vsevolod Peysakhovich
- Département Conception et Conduite des Véhicules Aéronautiques et Spatiaux, Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace Toulouse, France
| | - Eve F Fabre
- Département Conception et Conduite des Véhicules Aéronautiques et Spatiaux, Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace Toulouse, France
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12
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Schomaker J, Meeter M. Short- and long-lasting consequences of novelty, deviance and surprise on brain and cognition. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2015; 55:268-79. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.05.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 104] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2015] [Revised: 04/01/2015] [Accepted: 05/04/2015] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
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13
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Parmentier FBR, Kefauver M. The semantic aftermath of distraction by deviant sounds: Crosstalk interference is mediated by the predictability of semantic congruency. Brain Res 2015; 1626:247-57. [PMID: 25641044 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.01.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2014] [Revised: 12/23/2014] [Accepted: 01/19/2015] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Rare changes in a stream of otherwise repeated task-irrelevant sounds break through selective attention and disrupt performance in an unrelated visual task. This deviance distraction effect emerges because deviant sounds violate the cognitive system's predictions. In this study we sought to examine whether predictability also mediate the so-called semantic effect whereby behavioral performance suffers from the clash between the involuntary semantic evaluation of irrelevant sounds and the voluntary processing of visual targets (e.g., when participants must categorize a right visual arrow following the presentation of the deviant sound "left"). By manipulating the conditional probabilities of the congruent and incongruent deviant sounds in a left/right arrow categorization task, we elicited implicit predictions about the upcoming target and related response. We observed a linear increase of the semantic effect with the proportion of congruent deviant trials (i.e., as deviant sounds increasingly predicted congruent targets). We conclude that deviant sounds affect response times based on a combination of crosstalk interference and two types of prediction violations: stimulus violations (violations of predictions regarding the identity of upcoming irrelevant sounds) and semantic violations (violations of predictions regarding the target afforded by deviant sounds). We report a three-parameter model that captures all key features of the observed RTs. Overall, our results fit with the view that the brain builds forward models of the environment in order to optimize cognitive processing and that control of one's attention and actions is called upon when predictions are violated. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Prediction and Attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrice B R Parmentier
- Neuropsychology & Cognition Group, Department of Psychology and Research Institute for Health Sciences (iUNICS), University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain; Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Palma (IdISPa), Balearic Islands, Spain; School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
| | - Miriam Kefauver
- Neuropsychology & Cognition Group, Department of Psychology and Research Institute for Health Sciences (iUNICS), University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain
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14
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Ljungberg JK, Parmentier FBR, Jones DM, Marsja E, Neely G. 'What's in a name?' 'No more than when it's mine own'. Evidence from auditory oddball distraction. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2014; 150:161-6. [PMID: 24880979 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2014.05.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2013] [Revised: 05/06/2014] [Accepted: 05/07/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Research of the distractor value of hearing the own name has shown that this self-referring stimulus captures attention in an involuntary fashion and create distraction. The behavioral studies are few and the outcomes are not always clear cut. In this study the distraction by own name compared to a control name was investigated by using a cross-modal oddball task in two experiments. In the first experiment, thirty-nine participants were conducting a computerized categorization task while exposed to, to-be ignored own and matched control names (controlling for familiarity, gender and number of syllables) as unexpected auditory deviant stimulus (12.5% trials for each name category) and a sine wave tone as a standard stimulus (75% of the trials). In the second experiment, another group of thirty-nine participants completed the same task but with the additional deviant stimulus of an irrelevant word added (10% trials for each deviant type and 70% trials with the standard stimulus). Results showed deviant distraction by exposure to both the irrelevant word, own and the control name compared to the standard tone but no differences were found showing that the own name captured attention and distracted the participants more than an irrelevant word or a control name. The results elucidate the role of the own name as a potent auditory distractor and possible limitations with its theoretical significance for general theories of attention are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica K Ljungberg
- Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden; School of Psychology, Cardiff University, UK.
| | - Fabrice B R Parmentier
- Department of Psychology, University of the Balearic Islands, Spain; School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Australia
| | - Dylan M Jones
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, UK; School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Australia
| | - Erik Marsja
- Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
| | - Gregory Neely
- Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
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15
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Aging increases distraction by auditory oddballs in visual, but not auditory tasks. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2014; 79:401-10. [DOI: 10.1007/s00426-014-0573-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2013] [Accepted: 04/29/2014] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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Mayas J, Parmentier FBR, Andrés P, Ballesteros S. Plasticity of attentional functions in older adults after non-action video game training: a randomized controlled trial. PLoS One 2014; 9:e92269. [PMID: 24647551 PMCID: PMC3960226 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2013] [Accepted: 02/09/2014] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
UNLABELLED A major goal of recent research in aging has been to examine cognitive plasticity in older adults and its capacity to counteract cognitive decline. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether older adults could benefit from brain training with video games in a cross-modal oddball task designed to assess distraction and alertness. Twenty-seven healthy older adults participated in the study (15 in the experimental group, 12 in the control group. The experimental group received 20 1-hr video game training sessions using a commercially available brain-training package (Lumosity) involving problem solving, mental calculation, working memory and attention tasks. The control group did not practice this package and, instead, attended meetings with the other members of the study several times along the course of the study. Both groups were evaluated before and after the intervention using a cross-modal oddball task measuring alertness and distraction. The results showed a significant reduction of distraction and an increase of alertness in the experimental group and no variation in the control group. These results suggest neurocognitive plasticity in the old human brain as training enhanced cognitive performance on attentional functions. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02007616.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Mayas
- Studies on Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Group, Department of Basic Psychology II, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain
| | - Fabrice B. R. Parmentier
- Neuropsychology and Cognition Group, Department of Psychology and Institute of Health Sciences (iUNICS), University of the Balearic Islands, Mallorca, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Palma (IdISPa), Mallorca, Spain
- School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
| | - Pilar Andrés
- Neuropsychology and Cognition Group, Department of Psychology and Institute of Health Sciences (iUNICS), University of the Balearic Islands, Mallorca, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Palma (IdISPa), Mallorca, Spain
| | - Soledad Ballesteros
- Studies on Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Group, Department of Basic Psychology II, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain
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17
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The cognitive determinants of behavioral distraction by deviant auditory stimuli: a review. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2013; 78:321-38. [DOI: 10.1007/s00426-013-0534-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2013] [Accepted: 12/06/2013] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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18
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Berti S. The role of auditory transient and deviance processing in distraction of task performance: a combined behavioral and event-related brain potential study. Front Hum Neurosci 2013; 7:352. [PMID: 23874278 PMCID: PMC3708154 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2013] [Accepted: 06/19/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Distraction of goal-oriented performance by a sudden change in the auditory environment is an everyday life experience. Different types of changes can be distracting, including a sudden onset of a transient sound and a slight deviation of otherwise regular auditory background stimulation. With regard to deviance detection, it is assumed that slight changes in a continuous sequence of auditory stimuli are detected by a predictive coding mechanisms and it has been demonstrated that this mechanism is capable of distracting ongoing task performance. In contrast, it is open whether transient detection-which does not rely on predictive coding mechanisms-can trigger behavioral distraction, too. In the present study, the effect of rare auditory changes on visual task performance is tested in an auditory-visual cross-modal distraction paradigm. The rare changes are either embedded within a continuous standard stimulation (triggering deviance detection) or are presented within an otherwise silent situation (triggering transient detection). In the event-related brain potentials, deviants elicited the mismatch negativity (MMN) while transients elicited an enhanced N1 component, mirroring pre-attentive change detection in both conditions but on the basis of different neuro-cognitive processes. These sensory components are followed by attention related ERP components including the P3a and the reorienting negativity (RON). This demonstrates that both types of changes trigger switches of attention. Finally, distraction of task performance is observable, too, but the impact of deviants is higher compared to transients. These findings suggest different routes of distraction allowing for the automatic processing of a wide range of potentially relevant changes in the environment as a pre-requisite for adaptive behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Berti
- Department for Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz Mainz, Germany
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Li B, Parmentier FB, Zhang M. Behavioral Distraction by Auditory Deviance Is Mediated by the Sound’s Informational Value *Li and Parmentier share the first authorship of this study. Exp Psychol 2013; 60:260-8. [DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Sounds deviating from an otherwise repetitive background in some task-irrelevant respect (deviant sounds among standard sounds) capture attention in an obligatory fashion and result in behavioral distraction in an ongoing task. Traditionally, such distraction has been considered as the ineluctable consequence of the deviant sound’s low probability of occurrence relative to that of the standard. Recent evidence from a cross-modal oddball task challenged this idea by showing that deviant sounds only yield distraction in a visual task when auditory distractors (standards and deviants) announce with certainty the imminent presentation of a target stimulus (event information), regardless of whether they predict the target’s temporal onset (temporal information). The present study sought to test for the first time whether this finding may be generalized to a purely auditory oddball task in which distractor and target information form part of the same perceptual stimulus. Participants were asked to judge whether a sound starting from a central location moved left or right while ignoring rare and unpredictable changes in the sound’s identity. By manipulating the temporal and probabilistic relationship between sound onset and movement onset, we disentangled the roles of event and temporal information and found that, as in the auditory-visual oddball task, deviance distraction is mediated by the extent to which distractor information harbingers the presentation of the target information (event information). This finding suggests that the provision of event information by auditory distractors is a fundamental prerequisite of behavioral deviance distraction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Biqin Li
- School of Psychology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, P.R. China
- Department of Psychology, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, P.R. China
| | - Fabrice B.R. Parmentier
- Department of Psychology, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
- School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
| | - Ming Zhang
- School of Psychology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, P.R. China
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Girardi G, Antonucci G, Nico D. Cueing spatial attention through timing and probability. Cortex 2013; 49:211-21. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2011.08.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2011] [Revised: 08/12/2011] [Accepted: 08/24/2011] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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21
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Ljungberg JK, Parmentier F. The impact of intonation and valence on objective and subjective attention capture by auditory alarms. HUMAN FACTORS 2012; 54:826-837. [PMID: 23156626 DOI: 10.1177/0018720812438613] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The objective was to study the involuntary capture of attention by spoken words varying in intonation and valence. BACKGROUND In studies of verbal alarms, the propensity of alarms to capture attention has been primarily assessed with the use of subjective ratings of their perceived urgency. Past studies suggest that such ratings vary with the alarms' spoken urgency and content. METHOD We measured attention capture by spoken words varying in valence (negative vs. neutral) and intonation (urgently vs. nonurgently spoken) through subjective ratings and behavioral measures. The key behavioral measure was the response latency to visual stimuli in the presence of spoken words breaking away from the periodical repetition of a tone. RESULTS The results showed that all words captured attention relative to a baseline standard tone but that this effect was partly counteracted by a relative speeding of responses for urgently compared with nonurgently spoken words. Word valence did not affect behavioral performance. Rating data showed that both intonation and valence increased significantly perceived urgency and attention grabbing without any interaction. CONCLUSION The data suggest a congruency between subjective ratings and behavioral performance with respect to spoken intonation but not valence. APPLICATION This study demonstrates the usefulness and feasibility of objective measures of attention capture to help design efficient alarm systems.
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Abstract
Unexpected task-irrelevant changes in the auditory or visual sensory channels have been shown to capture attention in an ineluctable manner and distract participants away from ongoing auditory or visual categorization tasks. We extend the study of this phenomenon by reporting the first within-participant comparison of deviance distraction in the tactile and auditory modalities. Using vibro-tactile-visual and auditory-visual cross-modal oddball tasks, we found that unexpected changes in the tactile and auditory modalities produced a number of functional similarities: A negative impact of distracter deviance on performance in the ongoing visual task, distraction on the subsequent trial (post-deviance distraction), and a similar decrease – but not the disappearance – of these effects across blocks. Despite these functional similarities, deviance distraction only correlated between the auditory and tactile modalities for the accuracy-based measure of deviance distraction and not for response latencies. Post-deviance distraction showed no correlation between modalities. Overall, the results suggest that behavioral deviance distraction may be underpinned by both modality-specific and multimodal mechanisms, while post-deviance distraction may predominantly relate to modality-specific processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica K. Ljungberg
- Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Sweden
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, UK
| | - Fabrice B. R. Parmentier
- Department of Psychology, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain
- School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
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Parmentier FBR, Elsley JV, Andrés P, Barceló F. Why are auditory novels distracting? Contrasting the roles of novelty, violation of expectation and stimulus change. Cognition 2011; 119:374-80. [PMID: 21382615 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.02.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 78] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2010] [Revised: 01/30/2011] [Accepted: 02/01/2011] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Past studies show that novel auditory stimuli, presented in the context of an otherwise repeated sound, capture participants' attention away from a focal task, resulting in measurable behavioral distraction. Novel sounds are traditionally defined as rare and unexpected but past studies have not sought to disentangle these concepts directly. Using a cross-modal oddball task, we contrasted these aspects orthogonally by manipulating the base rate and conditional probabilities of sound events. We report for the first time that behavioral distraction does not result from a sound's novelty per se but from the violation of the cognitive system's expectation based on the learning of conditional probabilities and, to some extent, the occurrence of a perceptual change from one sound to another.
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