Effect of distractor sounds on the auditory attentional blink.

Full Abstract

Four experiments were conducted to determine whether or not the presence and placement of distractors in a rapid serial auditory stream has any influence on the emergence of the auditory attentional blink (AB). Experiment 1 revealed that the presence of distractors is necessary to produce the auditory AB. In Experiments 2 and 3, the auditory AB was reduced when the distractor immediately following the probe was replaced by silence but not when the distractor following the target was replaced by silence. Finally, in Experiment 4, only a very small auditory AB was found to remain when all distractors following the probe were replaced by silence. These results suggest that the auditory AB is affected both by the overwriting of the probe by the distractors following it and by a reduction in discriminability generated by all of the distractors presented in the sequence.

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Author information

Author/s: Shen, Dawei (D); Mondor, Todd A (TA);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. umshend(-atsign-)cc.umanitoba.ca

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Perception & psychophysics (Percept Psychophys), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Feb; vol 68 (issue 2) : pp 228-43

Dates: Created 2006/06/15; Completed 2006/07/12; Revised 2008/11/21;

PMID: 16773896, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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