Psychology Department, North Dakota State University, PO Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108-6050, USA.
Cogn Emot. 2011 Feb;25(2):307-27. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2010.494387.
Mental noise can be defined as less reliable information processing. Individuals with high levels of mental noise are thought to be disadvantaged in cognitive, emotional, and behavioural realms. The present five studies (total N=298) investigated such potential disadvantages among normally functioning college undergraduates. Mental noise was operationalised in terms of the reaction time coefficient of variation (RTCV), a measure of RT variability that corrects for average levels of mental speed. Individuals with higher RTCV exhibited less effective cognitive control (Studies 1 and 5), less controlled behaviour (Study 2), and were more prone to negative emotional experiences (Study 3) and depressive symptoms (Study 4). Study 5 extended these results and found that individuals higher (versus lower) in RTCV were more adversely affected by their attentional lapses in daily life. Results converge on the idea that mental noise is an important individual difference dimension with multiple adverse correlates and consequences.
心理噪音可以被定义为不太可靠的信息处理。人们认为，高水平的心理噪音会在认知、情感和行为领域处于不利地位。本研究共进行了五项研究（总样本量为 298 人），旨在调查正常大学生中是否存在这种潜在的劣势。心理噪音是通过反应时变异系数（RTCV）来操作化的，这是一种衡量反应时变异性的指标，它可以校正平均的心理速度。RTCV 较高的个体表现出较差的认知控制（研究 1 和 5）、较差的行为控制（研究 2），更容易体验到负面情绪（研究 3）和抑郁症状（研究 4）。研究 5 扩展了这些结果，发现 RTCV 较高（而非较低）的个体在日常生活中更容易受到注意力不集中的负面影响。这些结果表明，心理噪音是一个重要的个体差异维度，与多种不利的相关因素和后果有关。
