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A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions
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Unexpected events disrupt visuomotor working memory and increase guessing.

R Dawn Finzi1, Bradley R Postle2, Timothy F Brady1

  • 1Psychology Department, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92103, USA.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
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Summary

Unexpected auditory events disrupt visuomotor working memory (WM). This effect, lasting many trials, reduces the quantity of stored information, suggesting a "wipe out" mechanism impacting distractibility research.

Keywords:
Inhibitory controlUnexpected eventsWorking memory

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Psychology

Background:

  • Unexpected auditory events can disrupt cognitive processes, including verbal working memory (WM).
  • Previous research modeled this effect using verbal WM tasks, showing disruption by sudden sounds.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if unexpected auditory events also impair visuomotor working memory.
  • To determine the duration and nature of this impairment in visuomotor WM.

Main Methods:

  • A task was designed to assess visuomotor working memory.
  • Unexpected auditory events were introduced during the task to observe their effect.
  • The impact on memory performance was analyzed over multiple trials.

Main Results:

  • Unexpected auditory events significantly decremented visuomotor WM performance.
  • This disruptive effect persisted for a greater number of trials compared to verbal WM.
  • The impairment was characterized by a decrease in the quantity of stored information, not necessarily quality, leading to increased guessing.

Conclusions:

  • Unexpected auditory events robustly impair visuomotor WM, with effects enduring over time.
  • The findings support a neuroscience-inspired theory where unexpected events disrupt memory trace maintenance.
  • The developed task paradigm offers a valuable tool for studying distractibility and its neural underpinnings.