Liang Wusheng, Brown Christopher A, Shinn-Cunningham Barbara G
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
Department of Communication Science and Disorders, The University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2022 May;151(5):3219. doi: 10.1121/10.0010453.
Salient interruptions draw attention involuntarily. Here, we explored whether this effect depends on the spatial and temporal relationships between a target stream and interrupter. In a series of online experiments, listeners focused spatial attention on a target stream of spoken syllables in the presence of an otherwise identical distractor stream from the opposite hemifield. On some random trials, an interrupter (a cat "MEOW") occurred. Experiment 1 established that the interrupter, which occurred randomly in 25% of the trials in the hemifield opposite the target, degraded target recall. Moreover, a majority of participants exhibited this degradation for the first target syllable, which finished before the interrupter began. Experiment 2 showed that the effect of an interrupter was similar whether it occurred in the opposite or the same hemifield as the target. Experiment 3 found that the interrupter degraded performance slightly if it occurred before the target stream began but had no effect if it began after the target stream ended. Experiment 4 showed decreased interruption effects when the interruption frequency increased (50% of the trials). These results demonstrate that a salient interrupter disrupts recall of a target stream, regardless of its direction, especially if it occurs during a target stream.
显著的干扰会不由自主地吸引注意力。在此，我们探究了这种效应是否取决于目标流与干扰物之间的空间和时间关系。在一系列在线实验中，听众将空间注意力集中在来自对侧半视野的、与干扰流相同的目标语音音节流上。在一些随机试验中，会出现一个干扰物（猫叫声“喵”）。实验1表明，在目标对侧半视野中25%的试验中随机出现的干扰物会降低目标回忆。此外，大多数参与者对在干扰物开始之前结束的第一个目标音节也表现出这种记忆衰退。实验2表明，干扰物出现在目标的对侧半视野还是同侧半视野，其效果相似。实验3发现，如果干扰物在目标流开始之前出现，会轻微降低表现，但如果在目标流结束后开始，则没有影响。实验4表明，当干扰频率增加（试验的50%）时，干扰效应会降低。这些结果表明，一个显著的干扰物会干扰目标流的回忆，无论其方向如何，特别是如果它出现在目标流期间。
