Distraction by Novel and Pitch-Deviant Sounds in Children

Abstract

The control of attention is an important part of our executive functions and enables us to focus on relevant information and to ignore irrelevant information. The ability to shield against distraction by task-irrelevant sounds is suggested to mature during school age. The present study investigated the developmental time course of distraction in three groups of children aged 7–10 years. Two different types of distractor sounds that have been frequently used in auditory attention research—novel environmental and pitch-deviant sounds—were presented within an oddball paradigm while children performed a visual categorization task. Reaction time measurements revealed decreasing distractor-related impairment with age. Novel environmental sounds impaired performance in the categorization task more than pitch-deviant sounds. The youngest children showed a pronounced decline of novel-related distraction effects throughout the experimental session. Such a significant decline as a result of practice was not observed in the pitch-deviant condition and not in older children. We observed no correlation between cross-modal distraction effects and performance in standardized tests of concentration and visual distraction. Results of the cross-modal distraction paradigm indicate that separate mechanisms underlying the processing of novel environmental and pitch-deviant sounds develop with different time courses and that these mechanisms develop considerably within a few years in middle childhood.

Rapid ocular responses are a robust marker for bottom-up driven auditory salience

“…We analyzed two types of rapid orienting responses: the 'ocular freezing' (MSI) response (Engbert and Kliegl, 2003;Hafed and Clark, 2002;Hafed and Ignashchenkova, 2013;Rolfs et al, 2008) and the pupil dilation response (PDR; Wang et al, 2017;Wang and Munoz, 2015). Both have been shown to systematically vary with visual salience (Bonneh et al, 2014;Rolfs et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2017 and have also been demonstrated to be evoked by auditory stimuli (Liao et al, 2016;Rolfs et al, 2008Rolfs et al, , 2005Munoz, 2015, 2014;Wetzel et al, 2016), consistent with the notion that they reflect the operation of modality-general interrupt process.…”

Can't Ignore—Distraction by Task‐Irrelevant Sounds in Early and Middle Childhood

“…In an auditory‐visual distraction study, 7‐ to 10‐year‐old children showed larger distraction effects in response to novel sounds than 11‐ to 13‐year‐old children (Gumenyuk et al., ). The development of attention control during the period of 7–10 years was specified in a recent similar auditory‐visual distraction study that reported decreased distraction effects with age in three groups of children aged 7, 8, and 9 to 10 years (Wetzel, Schröger, et al., ). In line with this ongoing maturation of attention control abilities during middle childhood, we observed reduced distraction effect between the group of the 6‐year‐old children and the group of 9‐ to 10‐year‐old children.…”

“…This is frequently reflected by prolonged reaction times (RTs) in distractor trials relative to standard trials in an auditory or visual categorization task (Escera, Alho, Winkler, & N€ a€ at€ anen, 1998;Schr€ oger & Wolff, 1998). Some developmental studies reported larger distraction effects in younger children compared with older children or adults (Gumenyuk et al, 2001;Wetzel & Schr€ oger, 2007;Wetzel, Schr€ oger, & Widmann, 2016;Wetzel, Widmann, Berti, & Schr€ oger, 2006). In contrast, no increased distraction effects were observed in 9-to 10-year-old children compared with adults (Ruhnau, Wetzel, Widmann, & Schr€ oger, 2010;Ruhnau et al, 2013).…”

Distraction of attention by novel sounds in children declines fast

“…In middle childhood, usually during elementary school years, developmental studies reported inconsistent results on attention control. A number of studies presenting a sequence of frequently presented and repeated standard sounds and infrequently presented unexpected novel or deviant sounds reported increased distraction effects in younger than older children in response to novel or deviant sounds in the middle childhood [e.g., 13 – 15 ]. Immature attention control in children aged 7–10-years was also reported by studies using different approaches, e.g.…”