Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Universitätsplatz 2/III, 8010, Graz, Austria.
Department for Dementia Research, University for Continuing Education Krems, Dr.-Karl-Dorrek-Straße 30, 3500, Krems, Austria.
Sci Rep. 2023 Oct 4;13(1):16700. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-43679-6.
We investigated whether and how different types of search distractions affect visual search behavior and target memory while participants searched in a real-world environment. They searched either undistracted (control condition), listened to a podcast (auditory distraction), counted down aloud at intervals of three while searching (executive working memory load), or were forced to stop the search on half of the trials (time pressure). In line with findings from laboratory settings, participants searched longer but made fewer errors when the target was absent than when it was present, regardless of distraction condition. Furthermore, compared to the auditory distraction condition, the executive working memory load led to higher error rates (but not longer search times). In a surprise memory test after the end of the search tasks, recognition was better for previously present targets than for absent targets. Again, this was regardless of the previous distraction condition, although significantly fewer targets were remembered by the participants in the executive working memory load condition than by those in the control condition. The findings suggest that executive working memory load, but likely not auditory distraction and time pressure affected visual search performance and target memory in a real-world environment.
我们研究了在现实环境中搜索时，不同类型的搜索干扰是否以及如何影响视觉搜索行为和目标记忆。参与者在无干扰（对照条件）、听播客（听觉干扰）、搜索时每隔三秒大声数数（执行工作记忆负荷）或在一半试验中被迫停止搜索（时间压力）的情况下进行搜索。与实验室环境的研究结果一致，无论干扰条件如何，当目标不存在时，参与者的搜索时间更长，但错误更少。此外，与听觉干扰条件相比，执行工作记忆负荷导致更高的错误率（但搜索时间没有延长）。在搜索任务结束后的惊喜记忆测试中，对于先前出现的目标，参与者的识别率更高。同样，这与之前的干扰条件无关，尽管在执行工作记忆负荷条件下的参与者记住的目标明显少于对照条件下的参与者。研究结果表明，在现实环境中，执行工作记忆负荷会影响视觉搜索表现和目标记忆，但可能不会受到听觉干扰和时间压力的影响。
