Disruption of attention by irrelevant stimuli in serial recall

• Published in: Journal of memory and language Vol. 53; no. 4; pp. 513 - 531
• Main Author: Lange, Elke B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego, CA Elsevier Inc 01.10.2005; Elsevier; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Attention; Attention Control; Biological and medical sciences; Distraction; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Irrelevant sound; Learning. Memory; Memorization; Memory; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Recall (Psychology); Short-term memory; Spatial Ability; Stimuli; Testing; Distraction; Irrelevant sound; Short-term memory; Attention; Short term; Human; Acoustic stimulus; Memory; Cognition; Stimulus pertinence; Serial recall
• ISSN: 0749-596X; 1096-0821
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2005.07.002

In four experiments the behavioral consequences of an involuntary attentional distraction concerning memory performance was investigated. The working memory model of Cowan (1995) predicts a performance deficit for memory representations that are held in an active state when the focus of attention is distracted by a change in physical properties. In the first experiment, the distraction was realized by an irrelevant tone, which was repeatedly presented and exchanged by another tone unexpectedly. Further experiments explored an analogous effect of irrelevant visual–spatial stimuli. The experiments demonstrated a domain-specific distraction effect: an irrelevant tone change impaired performance in verbal but not in spatial serial recall, whereas a change of position of an irrelevant object disrupted spatial but not verbal memory performance. The results are discussed in the context of several memory models that offer accounts for the effect of irrelevant changing state sounds.