Age equivalence in auditory distraction by changing and deviant speech sounds
Jan P Röer1, Raoul Bell1, John E Marsh2
1Department of Experimental Psychology.
Psychology and Aging
|November 3, 2015
Summary
Older adults showed worse short-term memory performance but were equally affected by changing and deviant speech sounds compared to younger adults. Auditory distraction did not differ significantly between age groups.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human Aging
Background:
- Auditory distraction impacts short-term memory, with theories suggesting older adults are more susceptible due to inhibitory deficits.
- Existing models propose different mechanisms for how changing and deviant sounds disrupt memory, leading to varied predictions for age-related differences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age-related differences in short-term memory disruption caused by changing and deviant auditory stimuli.
- To test predictions from the inhibitory deficit theory and the duplex-mechanism account of auditory distraction.
Main Methods:
- A serial recall task was administered to 128 older and 130 younger adults.
- Participants ignored three types of distractor sequences: steady-state, auditory deviant, and changing state.
- Performance was measured by recall accuracy under different distraction conditions.
Main Results:
- Older adults performed worse on the serial recall task than younger adults.
- Both age groups exhibited equivalent 'changing state effects' and 'auditory deviant effects'.
- These distraction effects were independent of individual working memory capacity.
Conclusions:
- The study's findings support the age-invariant distractibility account, indicating no significant age differences in susceptibility to auditory distraction.
- Contrary to some theories, both changing and deviant auditory stimuli disrupted memory to a similar extent across age groups.
- Auditory distraction effects on short-term memory appear consistent between younger and older adults, irrespective of working memory capacity.
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