Uncovering Auditory Distraction through a Behavioral and Eye-Tracking Combined Approach

通过行为和眼动追踪相结合的方法发现听觉分心

• 批准号: 418623-2013
• 负责人: Vachon, François
• 金额: $ 2.11万
• 依托单位: Université Laval
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=551513
• 关键词: Uncovering; Auditory; Distraction; through; Behavioral

Efficient mental performance is critically dependent on attentional selectivity: the ability to couple goal-related properties of incoming stimulation to the control of action while preventing goal-unrelated stimuli from doing so. Yet, whereas such selectivity would confer the advantage of being able to focus on a chosen goal, its rigid application would also mean a maladaptive lack of responsiveness to changing circumstances, some of which could signal danger or opportunity. Hence, the cognitive system must remain permeable to irrelevant stimulation in light of possible changes in environmental conditions or behavioral goals, lest the organism be rendered unresponsive to unexpected and potentially significant events. The benefits of permeability come, however, with the price of distractibility, whereby irrelevant stimuli can compromise the efficacy of goal- driven behavior. The central purpose of the proposed research is to uncover the underlying cognitive processes involved in striking the optimal balance between selectivity and permeability in the presence of irrelevant sound. Whereas some researchers ascribe the disruptive impact of unattended sound exclusively to attentional capture (the involuntary orienting of attention by a sound that deviates from the recent auditory past), others propose that auditory distraction can also ensue from competition-for-action (the disruption of deliberate processing by the obligatory processing of sound). This research program seeks to establish further key differences between the different forms of auditory distraction by focusing on how auditory deviants disrupt behavior and to pinpoint the origin(s) of such disruption through the innovative combination of behavioral and oculomotor data. The characteristics and nature of the to-be-ignored sound and the focal task will be systematically manipulated in order to: 1) establish pupillometry as an index of auditory attentional capture by deviant sounds; 2) specify the cognitive mechanisms responsible for the disturbance of cognitive functioning by deviant sounds; 3) determine the extent to which unattended sound is processed; 4) determine whether attention-capturing deviants take control over attentional mechanisms that are overt and/or covert in nature.

有效的心理表现关键取决于注意力的选择性：能够将输入刺激的目标相关特性与行动控制相结合，同时防止与目标无关的刺激这样做。然而，尽管这种选择性将带来能够专注于选定目标的优势，但其僵化的应用也意味着对不断变化的环境缺乏适应能力，其中一些环境可能预示着危险或机遇。因此，鉴于环境条件或行为目标的可能变化，认知系统必须保持对无关刺激的渗透性，以免生物体对意外和潜在的重大事件反应迟钝。然而，渗透性的好处是以分散注意力为代价的，不相关的刺激可能会损害目标驱动行为的功效。这项研究的中心目的是揭示在不相关的声音存在下，选择性和渗透性之间的最佳平衡所涉及的潜在认知过程。虽然一些研究人员将无人看管的声音的破坏性影响完全归因于注意力捕获（通过偏离最近听觉过去的声音无意识地定向注意力），但其他人认为听觉分心也可能来自行动竞争（通过强制性声音处理中断故意处理）。该研究计划旨在通过关注听觉异常者如何破坏行为来建立不同形式的听觉分心之间的进一步关键差异，并通过行为和视觉数据的创新组合来查明这种破坏的起源。将系统地操作待忽略声音和焦点任务的特征和性质，以便：1）建立瞳孔测量作为异常声音引起的听觉注意捕获的指标; 2）指定负责异常声音引起的认知功能干扰的认知机制; 3）确定无人注意的声音被处理的程度; 4）确定注意力捕获偏差者是否控制了本质上是显性和/或隐性的注意力机制。