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Equivalent auditory distraction in children and adults.
Jan P Röer1, Raoul Bell2, Ulrike Körner2
1Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, Witten/Herdecke University, 58448 Witten, Germany.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|March 26, 2018
Summary
Children and adults show similar difficulties ignoring distracting speech sounds. This finding supports the renewed view of age-related distraction, suggesting early filtering of irrelevant auditory information.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Auditory Perception
Background:
- Selective attention development in children versus adults is debated.
- Understanding age-related differences in ignoring auditory distractors is crucial for attention theories.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age differences in the disruptive effects of to-be-ignored speech on short-term memory.
- To compare children and adults' susceptibility to different types of auditory distraction.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments examined short-term memory performance in third, fourth, fifth graders, younger, and older adults.
- Three auditory conditions were used: steady state, changing state, and auditory deviant sequences.
- The impact of irrelevant speech on memory was analyzed across age groups.
Main Results:
- Children and adults experienced equal disruption from changing and deviant speech sounds.
- Task difficulty did not alter the observed age-related effects on distraction.
- Results align with theories suggesting no significant age differences in cross-modal auditory distraction.
Conclusions:
- The renewed view of age-related distraction is supported by the findings.
- Early filtering mechanisms may account for similar distraction levels across ages.
- Developmental differences in attentional control do not necessarily lead to greater auditory distraction in children.
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