Memory for Words in Noise

在我们的日常生活中，我们不断地被机器声音、背景语音和其他破坏性噪音等形式的无关听觉信息轰炸。随着机器在我们的社会中变得越来越重要，这种噪音的强度和普遍性似乎变得越来越强。与此同时，大多数职业已经从主要依赖体能转向更多地依赖更高水平的认知加工。这两个因素相互作用，迫使我们考虑增加噪音对精神活动的影响。试图量化和预测任何形式的噪音对我们认知能力的影响已经成为一个关键问题。这个项目将研究语音处理能力和忽略无关背景声音能力的个体差异之间的联系。该项目将包括两个主要阶段。第一个是评估在不同类型的噪音中处理语音和非语音声音的个体差异。第二项研究将使用这些测量方法，将在噪音中辨认单词的难易程度与对这些单词的记忆联系起来。人们的期望是，如果一些人能比其他人更快、更省力地处理信息，他们就可以将这些资源分配到排练和详细阐述项目上，以提高记忆性能。如果每个单词都很难理解，就会花费更多的精力来编码它的意思，导致较差的记忆性能。因此，预计语音处理能力将预测记忆噪声中出现的项目的能力。在实践中，我们将能够确定哪些类型的噪音对记忆性能特别有害，以及在什么情况下。这些结果将对那些设计工作环境的人感兴趣，并可以为努力改善噪音的负面后果提供相关数据。这个POWRE项目将为Surprenant开启一条新的研究探索路线，尽管与她以前的工作有关，但仍然以基础实验研究为基础，构成了重大的背离。这应该会增强她在自己所在领域的晋升和领导潜力。

In our daily lives, we are constantly being bombarded by irrelevant auditory information in the form of machine sounds, background speech, and other disruptive noises. The intensity and prevalence of this noise seems to have grown ever stronger as machines have become more important in our society. At the same time, the majority of occupations have moved from relying mainly on physical ability to relying more on higher-level cognitive processing. These two factors interact in ways that force us to consider the effect of increased noise on mental activity. Attempting to quantify and predict the effects of noise in any form on our cognitive abilities has become a critical issue. This project will examine the link between speech-processing abilities and individual differences in the ability to ignore irrelevant background sounds. This project will consist of two major phases. The first will be to assess individual differences in processing speech and non-speech sounds in different types of noise. The second will use these measurements to relate the ease of identifying words in noise to the memory for those words. The expectation is that if some individuals can process information more rapidly and with less effort than others, they can allocate those resources to rehearsing and elaborating upon the items in order to improve memory performance. If each word is difficult to comprehend, it will take more effort to encode its meaning, resulting in poorer memory performance. Thus, it is expected that speech-processing ability will predict the ability to remember items presented in noise. In practical terms, then, we will be able to identify what types of noise are especially detrimental to memory performance and under what circumstances. These results will be of interest to those designing work environments and can provide date relevant to efforts to ameliorate the negative consequences of noise.This POWRE project will initiate a new line of research inquiry for Surprenant which, although related to her previous work, constitutes a significant departure while still being grounded in basic experimental research. It should enhance her potential for advancement and leadership in her field.