Mama Yaniv, Fostick Leah, Icht Michal
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Psychology, Ariel University, Israel.
Department of Communication Disorders, Ariel University, Israel.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2018 Apr;185:235-242. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.03.002. Epub 2018 Mar 17.
The presence of background noise has been previously shown to disrupt cognitive performance, especially memory. The amount of interference is derived from the acoustic characteristics of the noise; energetic vs. informational, steady-state vs. fluctuating. However, the literature is inconsistent concerning the effects of different types of noise on long-term memory free recall. In the present study, we tested the impact of different noises on recall of items that were learned under two conditions - silent or aloud reading, a Production Effect (PE) paradigm. As the PE represents enhanced memory for words read aloud relative to words read silently during study, we focused on the effect of noise on this robust memory phenomenon. The results showed that (a) steady-state energetic noise did not affect memory, with a recall advantage for aloud words (PE), comparable to a no-noise condition, (b) fluctuating-energetic noise and fluctuating-informational (eight-talkers babble) noise eliminated the PE, with similar recall for aloud and silent items. These results are discussed in light of their theoretical implications, stressing the role of attention in the PE. Ecological implications regarding studying in noisy environments are suggested.
先前的研究表明，背景噪音的存在会干扰认知表现，尤其是记忆。干扰的程度源于噪音的声学特征；能量型与信息型、稳态与波动型。然而，关于不同类型噪音对长期记忆自由回忆的影响，文献中的观点并不一致。在本研究中，我们测试了不同噪音对在两种条件下学习的项目回忆的影响——默读或朗读，这是一种产生效应（PE）范式。由于产生效应代表相对于学习期间默读的单词，大声朗读的单词记忆增强，我们关注噪音对这种强大记忆现象的影响。结果表明：（a）稳态能量型噪音不影响记忆，大声朗读的单词（产生效应）的回忆优势与无噪音条件相当；（b）波动能量型噪音和波动信息型（八人交谈嘈杂声）噪音消除了产生效应，大声朗读和默读项目的回忆相似。我们根据其理论意义对这些结果进行了讨论，强调了注意力在产生效应中的作用。还提出了关于在嘈杂环境中学习的生态学意义。
