Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, 1200 N. Stonewall Avenue, Oklahoma City, OK 73117, USA.
Psychol Res. 2011 May;75(3):159-78. doi: 10.1007/s00426-010-0295-2. Epub 2010 Jul 17.
An auditory Eriksen-flanker task was used to study how conflicting information interferes with selective attention to task-relevant differences in pure-tone frequency. Across the observation intervals of the discrimination task, the relevant frequency differences between target tones were positive, but within an observation interval, they could appear to be small or negative relative to conflicting differences in flanker tones leading or trailing the target. Being correct required attending to the between-target and ignoring the target-flanker pitch relation (across and within observation-interval, respectively). The interference index was an elevation of conflict-laden frequency discrimination thresholds (FDTs), relative to no-conflict FDTs. When conflicting differences in frequency or level (but not in duration) trailed the relevant differences, interference (i.e., FDT elevation) was large and persistent, increased with the target-flanker time proximity, but decreased with extensive training. Interference occurs when the target-flanker pitch relation is more prominent than the one between targets, and the physical and/or perceptual effects of relevant and conflicting differences tend to cancel one another, as with the above conflicting differences. With untrained participants, the target-flanker pitch relation is most prominent in conditions fostering both the perceptual grouping of the target and flanker (e.g., close time proximity), and the recency and salience of the conflicting differences (e.g., trailing conflicting difference); conversely, by lessening such grouping and salience, prolonged training decreases or nullifies the interference. The interference observed herein does not arise because the relevant and the conflicting differences each prompt separate decisions or responses that are in mutual conflict; instead, it arises from the early-stage interaction between their perceptual effects.
采用听觉 Eriksen 侧抑制任务来研究在纯音频率的任务相关差异中，冲突信息如何干扰选择性注意。在辨别任务的观察间隔内，目标音之间的相关频率差异为正，但在观察间隔内，与引导或尾随目标的侧音的冲突差异相比，它们可能显得较小或为负。正确的反应需要注意目标之间的差异，而忽略目标-侧音的音高关系（分别是在跨观察间隔和在观察间隔内）。干扰指数是指相对于无冲突的频率辨别阈值（FDT），包含冲突的频率辨别阈值（FDT）升高。当频率或强度（但不是持续时间）的冲突差异尾随相关差异时，干扰（即 FDT 升高）较大且持续，与目标-侧音的时间接近度增加而增加，但随广泛训练而减少。当目标-侧音音高关系比目标之间的关系更突出，并且相关和冲突差异的物理和/或感知效应趋于相互抵消时，就会发生干扰，如上述冲突差异。对于未经训练的参与者，在促进目标和侧音的感知分组（例如，接近的时间接近度）以及冲突差异的新近性和突出性（例如，尾随的冲突差异）的条件下，目标-侧音音高关系最为突出；相反，通过减少这种分组和突出性，长时间的训练会降低或消除干扰。本文观察到的干扰不是因为相关和冲突的差异各自引发相互冲突的单独决策或反应，而是因为它们的感知效应在早期阶段相互作用而产生的。
