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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Irrelevant Stimuli and Action Control: Analyzing the Influence of Ignored Stimuli via the Distractor-Response Binding Paradigm
Published on: May 14, 2014
Valence of distractor words increases the effects of irrelevant speech on serial recall
Axel Buchner1, Klaus Rothermund, Dirk Wentura
1Institut für Experimentelle Psychologie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, Germany. axel.buchner@uni-duesseldorf.de
Abstract:
Participants memorized target words in silence or while ignoring neutral or valent (positive or negative) distractor words that could be either possessor-relevant or other-relevant. Distractor words impaired recall performance, but valent distractor words caused more disruption than neutral distractors, and negative distractors caused more disruption than positive distractors. The results are problematic for explanations of the irrelevant speech effect within working memory models that do not specify an explicit role of attention in the maintenance of information for immediate serial recall.
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