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

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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.