Irrelevant sounds tend to break through selective attention and impair cognitive performance. This observation has been examined in laboratory studies measuring interference with memory performance during exposure to irrelevant sound. These studies established that the degree of interference depends on the properties of the irrelevant sound as well as those of the cognitive task. The way in which this interference increases or decreases as characteristics of the sound and of the cognitive task are changed reveals key functional characteristics of auditory distraction. In this paper, a number of important practical implications arising from these studies are discussed, including the finding that relatively quiet background sound will have a marked effect on efficiency in performing cognitive tasks.
Abstract