Distraction by Auditory Categorical Deviations Is Unrelated to Working Memory Capacity: Further Evidence of a Distinction between Acoustic and Categorical Deviation Effects

Labonté, Katherine; Marsh, John E.; Vachon, François · 2021 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1080/25742442.2022.2033109

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Summary

This study investigates the functional characteristics of the "categorical deviation effect," a phenomenon where an unexpected change in the semantic category of an irrelevant auditory stream (e.g., a spoken letter among digits) disrupts visual task performance. While acoustic deviations (changes in pitch or location) are known to be modulated by working memory capacity (WMC) and top-down control, recent evidence suggested categorical deviations might operate differently. The authors aimed to determine if susceptibility to categorical distraction is related to WMC and to directly compare this effect with acoustic deviations to clarify their underlying mechanisms. Two experiments were conducted using a visual serial recall task performed while participants listened to irrelevant auditory sequences. In Experiment 1, 51 participants recalled visual digits while hearing spoken letters, with occasional categorical deviants (digits inserted into the letter stream). WMC was assessed using the operation span task. Experiment 2 expanded the sample to 72 participants and included both categorical deviants (letters among digits) and acoustic deviants (digits spoken in a different voice). WMC was measured more comprehensively using three complex span tasks: operation span, symmetry span, and rotation span, allowing for a composite WMC score. The results consistently showed that categorical deviations significantly impaired serial recall performance compared to standard trials. However, the magnitude of this disruption was not correlated with WMC in either experiment, with Bayesian analyses providing moderate to strong evidence for the null hypothesis. In contrast, Experiment 2 confirmed that the acoustic deviation effect was negatively correlated with WMC, particularly for operation span, indicating that individuals with higher WMC were less distracted by acoustic changes. Furthermore, the size of the categorical deviation effect and the acoustic deviation effect were unrelated to each other. Even when combining data from both experiments, no relationship between WMC and categorical distraction was found. These findings provide further evidence that categorical and acoustic deviation effects are functionally distinct. While acoustic distraction appears to be underpinned by attentional capture that is susceptible to top-down cognitive control (as reflected by WMC), categorical distraction is immune to such control. This suggests that the categorical deviation effect is not driven by the same attentional mechanisms as acoustic deviations, implying that unattended auditory information undergoes automatic post-categorical processing that disrupts cognition independently of an individual’s ability to exert cognitive control.

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• auditory