Age differences in the Irrelevant Sound Effect: A Serial Recognition Paradigm Cover Image

Age differences in the Irrelevant Sound Effect: A Serial Recognition Paradigm
Age differences in the Irrelevant Sound Effect: A Serial Recognition Paradigm

Author(s): Helene Schwarz, Sabine Schlittmeier, Annette Otto, Malte Persike, Maria Klatte, Margarete Imhof, Bozana Meinhardt-Injac
Subject(s): Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Experimental Pschology, Gerontology
Published by: Društvo psihologa Srbije
Keywords: the irrelevant sound effect; the changing-state effect; development; serial recognition task; task difficulty;

Summary/Abstract: In adults, the disrupting effect of irrelevant background sounds with distinct temporal-spectral variations (changing-state sounds) on short-term memory performance was found to be robust. In the present study, a verbal serial recognition task was used to investigate this so-called Irrelevant Sound Effect (ISE) in adults and 8– to 10-year-old children. An essential part of the short-term memory impairment during changing-state speech is due to interference processes (changing-state effect) which can be differentiated from the deviation effect of auditory distraction. In line with recent findings (Hughes et al., 2013), our study demonstrates that the changing-state effect is not modulated by task difficulty. Moreover, our results show that the changing-state effect remains stable for children and adults. This suggests that the differences in the magnitude of the ISE as reported by Elliott (2002) and Klatte et al. (2010) are most likely related to the increase in attentional control during childhood.

  • Issue Year: 48/2015
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 35-43
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: English