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A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions
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Learning to suppress a distractor is not affected by working memory load.

Ya Gao1,2, Jan Theeuwes3,4

  • 1Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 7, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. y.gao@vu.nl.

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Statistical learning helps suppress distracting information by identifying common patterns. This study found that learning to ignore predictable distractor locations does not require working memory resources, suggesting an automatic process.

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Attentional captureStatistical regularitiesVisual searchWorking memory

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Attention Research

Background:

  • Attentional selection is influenced by both current goals and past experiences.
  • Statistical learning enables individuals to extract environmental regularities, leading to suppression of high-probability distractor locations.
  • This suppression mechanism reduces unwanted attentional capture by distractors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether statistical learning, specifically the suppression of high-probability distractor locations, is dependent on working memory resources.
  • To determine if executive control is necessary for learning to suppress predictable distractors.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized an additional singleton task where one location had a higher probability of containing a distractor.
  • Combined this task with concurrent visual working memory (Experiment 1) and spatial working memory (Experiment 2) tasks.
  • Assessed the impact of working memory load on the ability to learn to suppress the high-probability distractor location.

Main Results:

  • Learning to suppress the high-probability distractor location was unaffected by concurrent working memory load.
  • Neither visual nor spatial working memory capacity influenced the suppression of predictable distractor locations.
  • Executive control resources did not appear to be necessary for this form of statistical learning.

Conclusions:

  • Statistical learning to suppress predictable distractor locations is an implicit and automatic process.
  • This learning does not rely on working memory capacity (visual or spatial) or executive control.
  • The extraction of environmental regularities likely involves long-term memory processes rather than working memory.