About distraction: Cognitive control processes in the service of distraction resistance

关于分心：用于抵抗分心的认知控制过程

• 批准号: ES/L00710X/1
• 负责人: Dylan Jones
• 金额: $ 46.03万
• 依托单位: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2014 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FL00710X%2F1
• 关键词: About; distraction; Cognitive; control; processes

Whether in the form of music, environmental sounds or human speech, auditory distraction accompanies substantial parts of our everyday activities, including learning and remembering. Laboratory and field studies have shown that this makes a material difference to performance. We also know that this occurs even when the sound is not loud - effects just above the threshold of audibility may be just as disruptive as loud sound. In particular, a broad spectrum of memory processes is disrupted by the presence of irrelevant sound. However, nearly all previous research has worked on the assumption that the individual is a passive agent in these circumstances and has no control over how or if the sound impacts upon performance. Only recently has the issue of whether people can and do spontaneously counteract the negative effects of auditory distraction arisen. Do people modify their behaviour under conditions of auditory distraction to attain memory performance equivalent to performance in the absence of distraction, or does the presence of distraction also interfere with such strategies? The present project aims at answering this question. Decades of research in the area of metamemory has revealed a wealth of strategies people can deploy to control their memory performance. Most obviously, people can decide for how long they wish to study to-be-remembered material, with longer study times leading to better memory performance. Other widely investigated learning strategies pertain to spacing (vs. massing) of study episodes and deep semantic elaboration of the study material. Strategies to enhance the quality of memory output can also be employed at retrieval, for example withholding information that may be inaccurate, and controlling the length of a memory search. All of these strategies could, in principle, be deployed in the presence of auditory distraction to mitigate its disruptive effects. However, whenever people are free to control their encoding and retrieval operations, they could also use this freedom maladaptively. For example, when auditory distraction is present people could extend their study times to compensate for the disruptive effect of distraction or they could shorten their study times, reducing memory performance even further. It remains to be established whether the effective deployment of strategies used to study and retrieve information from memory serves to compensate for the negative effects of auditory distraction or whether it is itself impaired by auditory distraction, leading to an even more pronounced memory impairment.The results of the research are important for our understanding of people's functioning in the presence of auditory distraction and, as such, have important consequences for our understanding of the processes contributing to performance in settings as diverse as classrooms, offices, call centres, or, more generally, any working environment, including safety-critical environments. Importantly, the results of this project will also contribute to our general understanding of the governance of mental operations. The project will provide us with information on the extent to which people are capable and willing to modify learning and retrieval strategies when performance is under threat from sources of potential distraction.

无论是以音乐、环境声音还是人类语言的形式，听觉干扰都伴随着我们日常活动的很大一部分，包括学习和记忆。实验室和现场研究表明，这对性能产生了重大影响。我们还知道，即使声音不是很大，这种情况也会发生--略高于可听度阈值的效果可能和响亮的声音一样具有破坏性。特别是，一个广泛的记忆过程被干扰的存在无关的声音。然而，几乎所有以前的研究都假设个人在这些情况下是一个被动的代理人，并且无法控制声音如何或是否会影响性能。直到最近，人们是否能够并且确实自发地抵消听觉分心的负面影响的问题才出现。人们是否会在听觉分心的情况下改变自己的行为，以获得与没有分心的情况下相同的记忆表现，或者分心的存在也会干扰这些策略？本项目旨在回答这个问题。元记忆领域数十年的研究已经揭示了人们可以使用大量的策略来控制他们的记忆表现。最明显的是，人们可以决定他们希望学习多长时间来记住材料，更长的学习时间会导致更好的记忆表现。其他被广泛研究的学习策略涉及学习片段的间隔（与聚集）和学习材料的深层语义阐述。提高记忆输出质量的策略也可以在提取时使用，例如保留可能不准确的信息，控制记忆搜索的长度。原则上，所有这些策略都可以在听觉分心的情况下使用，以减轻其破坏性影响。然而，当人们可以自由地控制他们的编码和检索操作时，他们也可能不适应地使用这种自由。例如，当听觉干扰存在时，人们可以延长学习时间以补偿干扰的破坏性影响，或者他们可以缩短学习时间，从而进一步降低记忆性能。目前还有待确定的是，是否有效地部署用于学习和从记忆中检索信息的策略可以补偿听觉分心的负面影响，或者它本身是否受到听觉分心的损害，导致更明显的记忆障碍。研究结果对于我们理解人们在听觉分心的情况下的功能非常重要，因此，对于我们理解在教室、办公室、呼叫中心或更一般的任何工作环境（包括安全关键环境）中有助于绩效的过程具有重要影响。重要的是，这个项目的结果也将有助于我们对心理运作的治理的一般理解。该项目将为我们提供信息，在多大程度上人们有能力和愿意修改学习和检索策略时，性能受到威胁的潜在干扰源。

项目成果

Negative priming in free recall reconsidered.

• DOI: 10.1037/xlm0000192
• 发表时间: 2016-05
• 期刊: Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition
• 作者: Hanczakowski M;Beaman CP;Jones DM
• 通讯作者: Jones DM

The effects of distraction on metacognition and metacognition on distraction: evidence from recognition memory.

• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00439
• 发表时间: 2014
• 期刊: Frontiers in psychology
• 影响因子: 3.8
• 作者: Beaman CP;Hanczakowski M;Jones DM
• 通讯作者: Jones DM

The dissociations of confidence from accuracy in forced-choice recognition judgments

强制选择识别判断中信心与准确性的分离

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2020.104189
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Journal of Memory and Language
• 影响因子: 4.3
• 作者: Hanczakowski M

Metacognitive control over memory processes under auditory distraction

听觉干扰下记忆过程的元认知控制

• 发表时间: 2014
• 作者: Jones D M

Metamemory in a familiar place: The effects of environmental context on feeling of knowing.

• DOI: 10.1037/xlm0000292
• 发表时间: 2017-01
• 期刊: Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition
• 作者: Hanczakowski M;Zawadzka K;Collie H;Macken B
• 通讯作者: Macken B