ERIC Number: EJ993021
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Jun
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0096-1523
EISSN: N/A
Selective Impairment of Auditory Selective Attention under Concurrent Cognitive Load
Dittrich, Kerstin; Stahl, Christoph
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, v38 n3 p618-627 Jun 2012
Load theory predicts that concurrent cognitive load impairs selective attention. For visual stimuli, it has been shown that this impairment can be selective: Distraction was specifically increased when the stimulus material used in the cognitive load task matches that of the selective attention task. Here, we report four experiments that demonstrate such selective load effects for auditory selective attention. The effect of two different cognitive load tasks on two different auditory Stroop tasks was examined, and selective load effects were observed: Interference in a nonverbal-auditory Stroop task was increased under concurrent nonverbal-auditory cognitive load (compared with a no-load condition), but not under concurrent verbal-auditory cognitive load. By contrast, interference in a verbal-auditory Stroop task was increased under concurrent verbal-auditory cognitive load but not under nonverbal-auditory cognitive load. This double-dissociation pattern suggests the existence of different and separable verbal and nonverbal processing resources in the auditory domain. (Contains 1 table, 2 figures and 7 footnotes.)
Descriptors: Cognitive Processes, Attention Control, Visual Stimuli, Auditory Perception, Prediction, Auditory Stimuli, Task Analysis, Interference (Learning), Verbal Ability, Nonverbal Ability, Cognitive Ability
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A