The distraction paradigm: Equating difficulty is difficult.
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1
University of Newcastle, Australia
The distraction paradigm (Schröger, 1996, 1997) provides an empirical test of how the elicitation of mismatch negativity (MMN) impacts upon the attentional resources available to perform a behavioural task. In these paradigms a task-irrelevant sound sequence that contains MMN eliciting characteristics is superimposed on a behavioural task that occupies the focus of attention. The subsequent impact MMN has on attentional resources results in robust behavioural effects – increased reaction times and error rates. These behavioural effects can be muted by increasing task difficulty. That is, under increased task difficulty, increases in RT and error rates that typically follow MMN do not occur (Berti et al., 2004; Berti & Schröger, 2003). Broader cognitive literature suggests that the level of difficulty experienced in a given task can differ within and between individuals (Lavie, 2005). These differences can impact on task performance at an individual and group level (Lavie, 2005), introducing noise and clouding effects. To address this, tasks can be designed with inbuilt algorithms that equate difficulty within and between participants. To date, distraction paradigm research has not utilised difficulty-calibrated tasks. We aimed to create a distraction paradigm task with an inbuilt calibration feature that would equate task difficulty within and between participants. We used a novel auditory-visual distraction paradigm task with the task irrelevant sound sequence consisting of a duration deviant MMN sequence, and a visual inspection time behavioural task. Visual inspection time duration was varied within and between participants so that task difficulty would be calibrated at ~85% accuracy. Despite the elicitation of a distinct MMN, no behavioural effects were observed – increases in RT and error rates that typically follow MMN did not occur. We discuss reasons why our attempt to create a task with an inbuilt calibration feature may have been unsuccessful in this variation of an auditory-visual distraction paradigm task.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge Mr. Gavin Cooper for his assistance in task design and programming.
Keywords:
mismatch negativity (MMN),
distraction paradigm,
distraction,
Attention,
task difficulty
Conference:
ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Sydney, Australia, 2 Dec - 4 Dec, 2015.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Psychophysiology
Citation:
Damaso
K,
Provost
AL,
Michie
P,
Brown
S,
Schall
U and
Todd
J
(2015). The distraction paradigm: Equating difficulty is difficult..
Conference Abstract:
ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.219.00014
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Received:
25 Oct 2015;
Published Online:
30 Nov 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Ms. Karlye Damaso, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, Karlye.Damaso@uon.edu.au