About distraction: Cognitive control processes in the service of distraction resistance

Whether in the form of music, environmental sounds or human speech, auditory distraction accompanies substantial parts of our everyday activities, including learning and remembering. Laboratory and field studies have shown that this makes a material difference to performance. We also know that this occurs even when the sound is not loud - effects just above the threshold of audibility may be just as disruptive as loud sound. In particular, a broad spectrum of memory processes is disrupted by the presence of irrelevant sound. However, nearly all previous research has worked on the assumption that the individual is a passive agent in these circumstances and has no control over how or if the sound impacts upon performance. Only recently has the issue of whether people can and do spontaneously counteract the negative effects of auditory distraction arisen. Do people modify their behaviour under conditions of auditory distraction to attain memory performance equivalent to performance in the absence of distraction, or does the presence of distraction also interfere with such strategies? The present project aims at answering this question.

Decades of research in the area of metamemory has revealed a wealth of strategies people can deploy to control their memory performance. Most obviously, people can decide for how long they wish to study to-be-remembered material, with longer study times leading to better memory performance. Other widely investigated learning strategies pertain to spacing (vs. massing) of study episodes and deep semantic elaboration of the study material. Strategies to enhance the quality of memory output can also be employed at retrieval, for example withholding information that may be inaccurate, and controlling the length of a memory search.

All of these strategies could, in principle, be deployed in the presence of auditory distraction to mitigate its disruptive effects. However, whenever people are free to control their encoding and retrieval operations, they could also use this freedom maladaptively. For example, when auditory distraction is present people could extend their study times to compensate for the disruptive effect of distraction or they could shorten their study times, reducing memory performance even further. It remains to be established whether the effective deployment of strategies used to study and retrieve information from memory serves to compensate for the negative effects of auditory distraction or whether it is itself impaired by auditory distraction, leading to an even more pronounced memory impairment.

The results of the research are important for our understanding of people's functioning in the presence of auditory distraction and, as such, have important consequences for our understanding of the processes contributing to performance in settings as diverse as classrooms, offices, call centres, or, more generally, any working environment, including safety-critical environments. Importantly, the results of this project will also contribute to our general understanding of the governance of mental operations. The project will provide us with information on the extent to which people are capable and willing to modify learning and retrieval strategies when performance is under threat from sources of potential distraction.

The main output from the research will be improved understanding of human response to sound and in particular an understanding of ways in which individuals exercise control over distraction. Such control may produce positive outcomes, inasmuch as distraction is reduced, but it is also possible that exercise of such control will have negative side effects. So, for example, control of distraction during learning may have immediate positive consequences on some aspects of retention, but may restrict semantic processing to superficial levels. The project will contribute to the understanding of control processes and agency more generally, and to the role played by metacognitive processes in learning. Although the study of critical groups is not part of the project it is appropriate to spell out the implications for relevant groups, such as young children learning language.

A wide and diverse set of individuals and groups working in related fields are likely to be beneficiaries of the research. These include individuals interested in noise abatement, including:
* Policy makers and advisors interested in formulating standards for a range of environments, including urban (e.g., city traffic noise), rural (e.g. wind farm noise), work settings (such as offices, ships, planes, lorries, etc., both in relation to efficiency and comfort), educational (e.g. classroom) and domestic (e.g. from aircraft noise) settings. The work carries implications therefore for life, health and creative output, as well as the effectiveness of public policy
* Designers of (usually safety-critical) human factors systems, for whom the distracting qualities of noise can be exploited for alarms, as well as the understanding the negative aspects of distraction in settings such as the flight-deck of aircraft
Public interest in noise and noise annoyance is very high, with noise often being the major source of irritation in urban and increasingly in rural environments (wind farms).

Given the basic nature of the research, the timescales for realising benefit are likely to be long. Applied work will be needed to apply the understanding and spell out the precise implications; however, some of this can be done through synergies with projects currently running (e.g. via collaborators in Sweden currently studying alarms). Early dissemination to a range of target groups (engineers, epidemiologists, human factors specialists, educationalists, architects, designers, environmentalists, noise abatement activists, the public, among others) is important to making the results intelligible to non-specialists. Importantly, interest in noise is international and correspondingly a range of fora for dissemination is very international (conferences such as Noise as a Public Health Problem, Internoise, Acoustic Ecology, Euronoise, Noise-Con, etc., etc.).

In terms of its impact the research will be both instrumental (namely influencing the development of policy, practice or service provision, shaping legislation, altering behavior, influencing design and practice) and conceptual (contributing to the understanding of policy issues, reframing debates).

The research and professional skills development of the staff employed on this project relate to the advanced theoretical and technical aspects of cognitive psychology, a domain in which the UK has parity of scholarly esteem with the best in the world (particularly the US). Although progression through an academic career could follow, the skill base could also serve for job opportunities in a wider range of occupations such as any one of the target groups listed above.