The interplay between the attended and the unattended: A gateway to automatic and controlled processing

我们的大脑不断受到刺激的轰炸，但我们必须注意与我们当前任务相关的一小部分刺激。例如，当你阅读这篇文章时，你注意的是黑色特征，包括单词，而不是交通噪音或在背景中交谈的人。这种关键的聚焦能力必须与环境的突然变化保持平衡，因为环境的突然变化与目标无关，但可能预示着更重要的事情。因此，在某种程度上，我们必须保持分心，即可以渗透到无关的信息。然而，在许多情况下，渗透的基本能力让我们容易受到不必要的分心，这可能会损害精神表现。 这项建议侧重于一个持续研究计划的两个流，该计划的中心目标是在存在无关刺激的情况下，对在聚焦和渗透性之间取得最佳平衡所涉及的过程进行建模。更具体地说，目前的研究项目使用行为和生理方法与人类参与者相结合的方法来研究听觉领域的分心，目的是促进对自动和控制加工所涉及的基本认知机制的理论理解。 第一流概述了一项系统的研究，旨在推进对听觉分心如何通过更高的执行功能来缓和的理论理解。为了了解分心的认知控制是如何实现的，我们建议将高任务集激活作为认知控制的一种机制，并确定自上而下控制的位置。这项工作将使我们能够理解和预测主要的背景条件和一些特定于人的性格，这些性格决定了分心的可能性。 第二个研究方向是背景言语的语义特征。更具体地说，这个信息流努力确定无关声音的内容及其含义是如何被处理的，以及这种处理如何干扰正在进行的与目标相关的行为。这将通过仔细研究我实验室建立的一种新型听觉分心的功能特征来实现，根据该特征，自动检测到被忽视的声音中的语义不一致会扰乱任务表现。 这项研究旨在促进我们对有人照看和无人照看的人之间的相互作用如何影响注意力集中和注意力分散之间的微妙平衡的理解。实验和生理学技术的结合将丰富我们的知识，了解无人注意的信息是如何处理的，这种处理如何导致注意力不集中，以及这种分心如何通过更高的认知功能来缓和。这一结果必将超越其理论影响，对理解和纠正分心现象具有实际意义。

Our minds are constantly bombarded with stimuli and yet we must pay attention to the small subset of these that are relevant to our present task. For example, when reading this text you are paying attention to the black features comprising words and not traffic noise or people talking in the background. This crucial ability for focusability must be balanced against remaining open to interruption by sudden changes in the environment that are goal-irrelevant but may signal something more important. Thus, to some extent we must remain distractible, i.e. permeable to irrelevant information. However, in many cases, the essential capacity for permeability leaves us open to unwanted distraction that threatens to impair mental performance. This proposal focuses on two streams of a continuing program of research that has as its central goal the modeling of the processes involved in striking the optimal balance between focusability and permeability in the presence of irrelevant stimulation. More specifically, the current research project investigates distraction in the auditory domain using combinations of behavioral and physiological methods with human participants with the objective to advance the theoretical understanding of basic cognitive mechanisms involved in automatic and controlled processing. The first stream outlines a systematic investigation that aims to advance the theoretical comprehension of how auditory distraction can be tempered by higher executive functions. To understand how the cognitive control of distraction is achieved, we propose to examine high task-set activation as a mechanism of cognitive control and to pinpoint the locus of top-down control. This work will allow us to understand and predict the main contextual conditions and some person-specific dispositions that govern the likelihood of distraction. The second line of research is concerned with the semantic properties of background speech. More specifically, this stream endeavors to determine how the content of the irrelevant sound and its meaning are processed and how such processing interferes with ongoing goal-related behavior. This will be achieved by scrutinizing the functional characteristics of a novel form of auditory distraction established in my lab, whereby the automatic detection of a semantic incongruence within to-be-ignored sound disrupts task performance. This research is designed to advance our understanding of how the interplay between the attended and the unattended influences the delicate balance between focusability and distractibility. The combination of experimental and physiological techniques will enrich our knowledge of how unattended information is processed, how such processing contributes to failure of focusability, and how such distraction can be tempered by higher cognitive functions. The results will certainly extend beyond its theoretical impact by having practical implications for the comprehension and remediation of distraction.