@article{ref1,
title="Interference by process, not content, determines semantic auditory distraction",
journal="Cognition",
year="2009",
author="Marsh, John E. and Hughes, Robert W. and Jones, Dylan M.",
volume="110",
number="1",
pages="23-38",
abstract="Distraction by irrelevant background sound of visually-based cognitive tasks illustrates the vulnerability of attentional selectivity across modalities. Four experiments centred on auditory distraction during tests of memory for visually-presented semantic information. Meaningful irrelevant speech disrupted the free recall of semantic category-exemplars more than meaningless irrelevant sound (Experiment 1). This effect was exacerbated when the irrelevant speech was semantically related to the to-be-remembered material (Experiment 2). Importantly, however, these effects of meaningfulness and semantic relatedness were shown to arise only when instructions emphasized recall by category rather than by serial order (Experiments 3 and 4). The results favor a process-oriented, rather than a structural, approach to the breakdown of attentional selectivity and forgetting: performance is impaired by the similarity of process brought to bear on the relevant and irrelevant material, not the similarity in item content.  Keywords: Driver distraction;<p />",
language="",
issn="0010-0277",
doi="10.1016/j.cognition.2008.08.003",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.08.003"
}