The effect of distraction on change detection in crowded acoustic scenes.

The effect of distraction on change detection in crowded acoustic scenes.
Hear Res. 2016 Sep 2;
Authors: Petsas T, Harrison J, Kashino M, Furukawa S, Chait M
Abstract
In this series of behavioural experiments we investigated the effect of distraction on the maintenance of acoustic scene information in short-term memory. Stimuli are artificial acoustic 'scenes' composed of several (up to twelve) concurrent tone-pip streams ('sources'). A gap (1000 ms) is inserted partway through the 'scene'; Changes in the form of an appearance of a new source or disappearance of an existing source, occur after the gap in 50% of the trials. Listeners were instructed to monitor the unfolding 'soundscapes' for these events. Distraction was measured by presenting distractor stimuli during the gap. Experiments 1 and 2 used a dual task design where listeners were required to perform a task with varying attentional demands ('High Demand' vs. 'Low Demand') on brief auditory (Experiment 1a) or visual (Experiment 1b) signals presented during the gap. Experiments 2 and 3 required participants to ignore distractor sounds and focus on the change detection task. Our results demonstrate that the maintenance of scene information in short-term memory is influenced by the availability of attentional and/or processing resources during the gap, and that this dependence appears to be modality specific. We also show that these processes are susceptible to bottom up drive...

Source: Hearing Research - September 1, 2016 Category: Audiology Authors: Petsas T, Harrison J, Kashino M, Furukawa S, Chait M Tags: Hear Res Source Type: research