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.

有效的心理表现在很大程度上依赖于注意选择性：在阻止与目标无关的刺激这样做的同时，将传入刺激的与目标相关的特性与行动控制相结合的能力。然而，尽管这种选择性将赋予能够专注于选定目标的优势，但它的死板应用也意味着不适应，缺乏对不断变化的环境的反应，其中一些环境可能预示着危险或机遇。因此，认知系统必须根据环境条件或行为目标的可能变化保持对无关刺激的渗透性，以免有机体对意想不到的和潜在的重大事件没有反应。然而，渗透性的好处是以分心为代价的，在这种情况下，无关的刺激可能会损害目标驱动行为的有效性。这项拟议研究的中心目的是揭示在存在无关声音的情况下，在选择性和渗透性之间实现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来无意识地定向注意力)，但另一些研究人员提出，听觉分心也可能源于行动竞争(通过强制性处理声音而破坏有意加工)。这项研究计划旨在通过关注听觉异常如何扰乱行为来建立不同形式的听觉分心之间的进一步关键差异，并通过创新地结合行为和动眼运动数据来查明这种干扰的根源(S)。系统地操纵被忽视声音和焦点任务的特征和性质，以便：1)建立斜视计量学作为异常声音听觉注意捕获的指标；2)明确异常声音扰乱认知功能的认知机制；3)确定无人注意的声音被处理的程度；4)确定注意捕获异常是否控制了本质上公开和/或隐蔽的注意机制。