Department of Psychology, Claremont Graduate University, 150 E 10th St, Claremont, CA, USA.
Mem Cognit. 2022 May;50(4):852-863. doi: 10.3758/s13421-021-01242-6. Epub 2021 Oct 8.
Background noise disrupts auditory selective attention and impairs performance on cognitive tasks, but the degree to which it is disruptive depends on the task and the individual. According to the load theory of attention and cognitive control, selective attention is influenced by both the perceptual load and the cognitive load of the primary task. Recent studies suggest that hard-to-read font in a reading task may shield attention against background noise and auditory distraction. The current study examined the disruptive effect of background noise on reading comprehension as a function of perceptual load and cognitive load. Perceptual load was manipulated by introducing task disfluency (hard-to-read or easy-to-read font), and cognitive load was manipulated by varying the type of background noise and investigating individual differences in working memory capacity. The results suggest that high perceptual load and high working memory capacity both facilitate reading comprehension. However, contrary to previous research, neither perceptual load nor capacity moderates the disruptive effect of background noise. These results failed to support the generalizability and applicability of the shield effect of perceptual disfluency against auditory distraction during reading but supported the beneficial effect of perceptual disfluency on reading comprehension.
背景噪音会干扰听觉选择性注意，并影响认知任务的表现，但它的干扰程度取决于任务和个体。根据注意和认知控制的负载理论，选择性注意受到主要任务的感知负载和认知负载的影响。最近的研究表明，阅读任务中难以阅读的字体可能会屏蔽注意力，防止受到背景噪音和听觉干扰。本研究考察了背景噪音对阅读理解的干扰效应，作为感知负载和认知负载的函数。通过引入任务不流畅（难以阅读或易于阅读的字体）来操纵感知负载，通过改变背景噪音的类型并研究工作记忆容量的个体差异来操纵认知负载。结果表明，高感知负载和高工作记忆能力都有利于阅读理解。然而，与之前的研究相反，无论是感知负载还是能力都不能调节背景噪音的干扰效应。这些结果未能支持在阅读过程中感知不流畅对听觉干扰的屏蔽效应的普遍性和适用性，但支持了感知不流畅对阅读理解的有益影响。
