Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Nov;79(8):2606-2619.
doi: 10.3758/s13414-017-1399-1.

When increasing distraction helps learning: Distractor number and content interact in their effects on memory

Kate Nussenbaum  1 , Dima Amso  2 , Julie Markant  3
Affiliations

When increasing distraction helps learning: Distractor number and content interact in their effects on memory

Kate Nussenbaum et al. Atten Percept Psychophys. 2017 Nov.

Abstract

Previous work has demonstrated that increasing the number of distractors in a search array can reduce interference from distractor content during target processing. However, it is unclear how this reduced interference influences learning of target information. Here, we investigated how varying the amount and content of distraction present in a learning environment affects visual search and subsequent memory for target items. In two experiments, we demonstrate that the number and content of competing distractors interact in their influence on target selection and memory. Specifically, while increasing the number of distractors present in a search array made target detection more effortful, it did not impair learning and memory for target content. Instead, when the distractors contained category information that conflicted with the target, increasing the number of distractors from one to three actually benefitted learning and memory. These data suggest that increasing numbers of distractors may reduce interference from conflicting conceptual information during encoding.

Keywords: Attention: Interactions with memory; Attention: Selective; Memory: Longterm memory.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Examples of (a) alive and (b) not alive target and distractor images presented in the incidental encoding task. (c) Schematic example of encoding trial in the baseline, one-, and three-distractor conditions. The distractors flashed at a rate of 350 ms. (d) Example of recognition memory test trial
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
(a) Eye-movement reaction times to target images and (b) target verification times across distractor conditions. Error bars indicate standard error
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
(a) Memory sensitivity (da) and (b) the proportion of old images remembered with high confidence across distractor conditions. Error bars indicate standard error
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
An example of a scrambled distractor image
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
(a) Eye-movement reaction times and (b) target verification times across trial types and distractor conditions. Error bars indicate standard error
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
(a) Memory sensitivity (da) and (b) the proportion of old images remembered with high confidence across distractor conditions and trial types. Error bars indicate standard error
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Astle DE, Harvey H, Stokes M, Mohseni H, Nobre AC, Scerif G. Distinct neural mechanisms of individual and developmental differences in VSTM capacity. Developmental Psychobiology. 2014;56(4):601–10. doi: 10.1002/dev.21126. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Astle DE, Nobre AC, Scerif G. Attentional control constrains visual short-term memory: Insights from developmental and individual differences. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 2012;65(2):277–94. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2010.492622. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ballesteros S, Reales JM, García E, Carrasco M. Selective attention affects implicit and explicit memory for familiar pictures at different delay conditions. Psicothema. 2006;18(1):88–99. - PubMed
    1. Busey, T. A., Tunnicliff, J., Loftus, G. R., & Loftus, E. F. (2000). Accounts of the confidence-accuracy relation in recognition memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 7(1), 26–48. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10780019 - PubMed
    1. Carrasco M. Visual attention: The past 25 years. Vision Research. 2011;51(13):1484–1525. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2011.04.012. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources