Distraction of attention by novel sounds in children declines fast

Abstract

New task-irrelevant sounds can distract attention. This study specifies the impact of stimulus novelty and of learning on attention control in three groups of children aged 6–7, 8, and 9–10 years and an adult control group. Participants (N = 179) were instructed to ignore a sound sequence including standard sounds and novel or repeated distractor sounds, while performing a visual categorization task. Distractor sounds impaired performance in children more than in adult controls, demonstrating the long-term development of attention control. Children, but not adults, were more distracted by novel than by repeated sounds, indicating increased sensitivity to novel information. Children, in particular younger children, were highly distracted during the first presentations of novel sounds compared to adults, while no age differences were observed for the last presentations. Results highlight the age-related impact of auditory novel information on attention and characterize the rapid development of attention control mechanisms as a function of age and exposure to irrelevant novel sounds.

Attentional control in middle childhood is highly dynamic - Strong initial distraction is followed by advanced attention control

“…In our classroom example, test takers would be able to better focus on the task after being exposed to several distractor sounds (e.g., dropping down pencils, sneezing, yawning, …) because they increasingly ignore sounds that are irrelevant for the task at hand (i.e., solving the exam questions). Previous data from a single study suggest that older children can adapt to such situations considerably faster than younger children (Wetzel et al, 2021).…”

“…Previous research suggests that children in early and middle childhood typically have trouble controlling their attention in noisy and distracting environments in general (Klatte, Bergström, & Lachmann, 2013). There are hints that children aged 6-10years are initially highly distracted but are able to increasingly control distraction after sufficient exposure to a distracting context (Wetzel, Widmann, & Scharf, 2021). In our classroom example, test takers would be able to better focus on the task after being exposed to several distractor sounds (e.g., dropping down pencils, sneezing, yawning, …) because they increasingly ignore sounds that are irrelevant for the task at hand (i.e., solving the exam questions).…”

“…Some oddball studies (cf. Table 6 in the Discussion section) reported increased distraction effects reflected by RT or hit rate in younger compared to older (based on RT, Gumenyuk, Korzyukov, Alho, Escera, & Näätänen, 2004;Wetzel, Scharf, & Widmann, 2019;Wetzel, Schröger, & Widmann, 2016) or in children compared to adults (Hoyer, Elshafei et al, 2021;Wetzel et al, 2019;Wetzel et al, 2021;Wetzel, Widmann, Berti, & Schröger, 2006) while other studies did not find increased distraction effects in children compared to adults (Horváth, Czigler, Birkás, Winkler, & Gervai, 2009;Leiva, Andrés, Servera, Verbruggen, & Parmentier, 2016;Ruhnau et al, 2013;Ruhnau, Wetzel, Widmann, & Schröger, 2010;Wetzel, 2015;Wetzel, Widmann, & Schröger, 2009) or observed similar distraction between younger and older children (Gumenyuk et al, 2001;based on hitrate, Gumenyuk et al, 2004;Hoyer, Elshafei et al, 2021;Wetzel et al, 2006;Wetzel & Schröger, 2007). These partially diverging results might be caused by several factors of the experimental design, for example characteristics of sounds (e.g., novelty, complexity) or modality and type or demands of the task (Wetzel & Schröger, 2014).…”

“…In addition, the diverging findings may be partially attributed to the small sample sizes in many studies in this field. Importantly, recent findings show that distraction effects in children aged 6-10 (but not in adults) may also be modulated by the novelty of the experimental situation itself (Wetzel et al, 2021;Wetzel, Schröger et al, 2016), as indicated by a decline of distraction effects from the beginning to the end of an experimental session.…”

“…However, differences in distraction control could result in varying distraction effects depending on the number of trials presented. Such effects are only visible when exposure to the experiment is considered as a predictor of experimental effects, for instance, by analyzing experimental blocks independently (e.g., Cycowicz & Friedman, 1997;Hoyer, Pakulak, Bidet-Caulet, & Karns, 2021;Oja et al, 2016;Wetzel et al, 2021).…”