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: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=631188
• 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.

有效的心理表现严重依赖于注意选择性：将传入刺激的目标相关特性与行动控制结合起来，同时阻止目标无关刺激这样做的能力。然而，尽管这种选择性的好处是能够集中于选定的目标，但它的严格应用也意味着适应不良，缺乏对变化的情况的反应，其中一些情况可能预示着危险或机会。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，以免机体对意外的和潜在的重大事件反应迟钝。然而，渗透性带来的好处是以分散注意力为代价的，因此，不相关的刺激会损害目标驱动行为的功效。本研究的核心目的是揭示在不相关声音存在的情况下，在选择性和渗透性之间达到最佳平衡所涉及的潜在认知过程。尽管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（一种偏离最近听觉过去的声音对注意力的非自愿定向），但其他人提出，听觉分心也可能源于行动竞争（强制性声音处理对故意处理的破坏）。本研究项目旨在通过关注听觉偏差如何干扰行为，进一步确定不同形式的听觉干扰之间的关键差异，并通过行为和动眼肌数据的创新结合来查明这种干扰的起源。对被忽略声音和焦点任务的特征和性质进行系统的操作，以便：1)建立瞳孔测量法作为被异常声音捕获的听觉注意的指标；2)明确异常声音干扰认知功能的认知机制；3)确定无人看管声音的处理程度；4)确定注意捕捉偏差者是否控制了显性和/或隐性的注意机制。