Relationship Between Auditory Distraction and Emotional Dimensionality for Non-Speech Sounds

Area of Science:

• Auditory perception and cognition
• Psychology of attention
• Human-computer interaction

Background:

• Task-irrelevant sounds can distract from speech, reducing performance and increasing listening effort.
• Previous studies often used non-speech sounds with varying emotional content, potentially influencing distraction.
• The emotional characteristics (arousal and valence) of sounds may play a role in auditory distraction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between the arousal and valence of task-irrelevant auditory stimuli and their impact on auditory distraction.
• To determine if stimulus characteristics of arousal or valence affect word recognition or verbal response times (listening effort).
• To analyze how emotional content of sounds influences distraction from speech.

Main Methods:

• An online listening task involved 19 young adults rating the valence and arousal of non-speech sounds.
• Existing word recognition and verbal response time data were reanalyzed using these ratings.
• Correlation analyses examined relationships between stimulus ratings and behavioral measures of distraction.

Main Results:

• Task-irrelevant stimuli negatively impacted word recognition, particularly exciting sounds (in noise) and calming sounds (in quiet).
• All task-irrelevant sounds significantly increased verbal response times (listening effort) by over 200 msec.
• Valenced stimuli showed the largest distraction effect on response times; valence correlated with reduced word recognition in quiet.

Conclusions:

• Task-irrelevant sounds with emotional valence or high arousal can impair speech perception and increase cognitive load.
• The emotional content of auditory stimuli is a critical factor in understanding distraction effects.
• Future research should incorporate the emotional characteristics of sounds when assessing auditory distraction.