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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 12, 2026

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

Published on: July 16, 2015

Working memory constraints on replanning following distraction.

Ziyao Zhang¹, Jarrod A Lewis-Peacock

¹Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. ziyaoz@utexas.edu.

Communications Psychology

|July 9, 2026

Summary

People flexibly adjust working memory to handle distractions, prioritizing nearby goals. However, this ability weakens with more information and is limited to one item after a distraction.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

Working memory is crucial for daily tasks, enabling goal management and planning.
Real-world agent states are dynamic and prone to distractions, yet how working memory adapts is unclear.
Previous studies often fix agent states, limiting understanding of distraction resilience.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how working memory resources are dynamically reallocated in response to environmental changes and distractions.
To examine the impact of agent state perturbations on working memory performance and flexibility.
To understand the mechanisms underlying distraction resilience in dynamic environments.

Main Methods:

Developed a novel working memory paradigm simulating agent movement in a dynamic environment, inspired by the game Snake.
Participants (N=50) navigated a virtual field to collect memorized targets (apples) under varying memory loads (1, 2, or 4 items).
Introduced dynamic distractions (grapes) requiring task deviation and assessed adaptive resource allocation.

Main Results:

Participants prioritized nearby targets without distractions, using proximity for memory allocation.
When agent position was perturbed by distractions, participants flexibly reallocated resources to nearer targets.
Flexibility decreased with higher memory loads, and working memory reliance post-distraction was limited to one item.

Conclusions:

Dynamic working memory redistribution is a key mechanism for flexible adaptation to distractions.
Working memory resilience is constrained, particularly under high cognitive load or after perturbations.
This study provides insights into human cognitive flexibility in dynamic, real-world scenarios.