Corrigendum: Failing to get the gist of what's being said: background noise impairs higher-order cognitive processing.

[This corrects the article on p. 548 in vol. 6, PMID: 26052289.]

The green halo: Mechanisms and limits of the eco-label effect

Consumers believe that “eco-labeled” products taste better, which, at least in part, may be an effect of the label. The purpose of the current series of experiments was to examine some mechanisms and limits of this eco-label effect. In Experiment 1, an eco-label effect of similar magnitude was found for taste ratings of both conventional and organic bananas. Experiment 2 showed eco-label effects for a wider range of judgmental dimensions (i.e., health, calories, vitamins/minerals, mental performance, and willingness to pay) and the effect was about the same in magnitude for judgments of grapes and raisins. Experiment 3, with water as the tasted product, found no eco-label effect on judgments of taste, calories and vitamins/minerals, but an effect on willingness to pay, judgments of health benefits and judgments of mental performance benefits. Experiments 2 and 3 also included questionnaires on social desirability traits, schizotypal traits and pro-environmental consumer traits. The last was the strongest predictor of the eco-label effect amongst the three. In all, the eco-label effect is a robust phenomenon, but depends on interactions between product type and judgmental dimension. Implications for several accounts of the effect are discussed

Working memory capacity modulates habituation rate: Evidence from a cross-modal auditory distraction paradigm

Habituation of the orienting response is a pivotal part of selective attention, and previous research has related working memory capacity (WMC) to attention control. Against this background, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether individual differences in WMC contribute to habituation rate. The participants categorized visual targets across six blocks of trials. Each target was preceded either by a standard sound or, on rare trials, by a deviant. The magnitude of the deviation effect (i.e., prolonged response time when the deviant was presented) was relatively large in the beginning but attenuated toward the end. There was no relationship between WMC and the deviation effect at the beginning, but there was at the end, and greater WMC was associated with greater habituation. These results indicate that high memory ability increases habituation rate, and they support theories proposing a role for cognitive control in habituation and in some forms of auditory distraction

Examining the Role of Spatial Changes in Bimodal and Uni-Model To-Be-Ignored Stimuli and How They Affect Short-Term Memory Processes

This study examines the potential vulnerability of short-term memory processes to distraction by spatial changes within to-be-ignored bimodal, vibratory, and auditory stimuli. Participants were asked to recall sequences of serially presented digits or locations of dots while being exposed to to-be-ignored stimuli. On unexpected occasions, the bimodal to-be-ignored sequence, vibratory to-be-ignored sequence, or auditory to-be-ignored sequence changed their spatial origin from one side of the body (e.g., ear and arm, arm only, ear only) to the other. It was expected that the bimodal stimuli would make the spatial change more salient compared to that of the uni-modal stimuli and that this, in turn, would yield an increase in distraction of serial short-term memory in both the verbal and spatial domains. Our results support this assumption as a disruptive effect of the spatial deviant was only observed when presented within the bimodal to-be-ignored sequence: uni-modal to-be-ignored sequences, whether vibratory: or auditory, had no impact on either verbal or spatial short-term memory. Implications for models of attention capture and the potential special attention capturing role of bimodal stimuli are discussed

How memory of the past, a predictable present and expectations of the future underpin adaptation to the sound environment

By using auditory distraction as a tool, the main focus of the present thesis is to investigate the role of memory systems in human adaptation processes towards changes in the built environment. Report I and Report II focus on the question of whether memory for regularities in the auditory environment is used to form predictions and expectations of future sound events, and if violations of these expectations capture attention. Collectively the results indicate that once a stable neural model of the sound environment is created, violations of the formed expectations can capture attention. Furthermore, the magnitude of attentional capture is a function of the pitch difference between the expected tone and the presented tone. The second part of the thesis is concerned with, (a) the nature (i.e. the specificity) of the neural model formed in an auditory environment and, (b) whether complex cognition in terms of working memory capacity modulates habituation rate. The results in Report III show that the disruptive effect of the deviation effect diminishes with the number of exposures over time, and also as a function of working memory capacity. The aim of Report IV was to investigate the nature (and specificity) of the neural model formed in an auditory environment. If the neural model is fashioned around a specific stimulus then an observable increase of response latency should occur in conjunction with the deviant change. The results in Experiment 1 in Report IV, however, show that the habituation rate remained the same throughout the experiment. To further test the specificity of the neural model the modalityof the deviant event was switched (from auditory to visual and vice versa) in Experiment 3 in Report IV. The collective findings indicate that the formed neural model may be of a more general nature than previously suggested. The aim of Experiment 2 in Report IV was to investigate what properties of the sound environment underpin habituation rate, more specifically if predictability of a deviant trial facilitates the habituation process. The finding that the habituation rate was similar whether there was a fixed temporal interval between the deviant trials or a random interval suggests that the amount of occurrences (i.e. number of deviant trials) determines habituation rate, not the predictability of a deviant trial.Denna avhandling undersöker vilken roll minnessystem har i anpassningen till förändringar i den byggda miljön. Delrapport I och Delrapport II fokuserar på frågan om regelbundenheter i den auditiva miljön används för att skapa förväntningar och prediktioner gällande framtida händelser, och vidare, om avvikelser från dessa förväntningar fångar uppmärksamheten. Sammantaget tyder resultaten på att uppmärksamheten fångas om nämnda förväntningar inte infrias. Vidare visar resultaten att magnituden av den fångade uppmärksamheten är en funktion av skillnaden mellan den förväntade tonen och den presenterade tonen. Den andra delen av avhandlingen undersöker (a) karaktären (dvs. specificiteten) av den neurala modellen och (b) om komplex kognition i termer av arbetsminneskapacitet påverkar habituation. Resultaten i Delrapport III visar att den störande effekten av den avvikande tonen minskar dels med antalet exponeringar och dels som en funktion av arbetsminneskapacitet. Syftet med Delrapport IV var att undersöka hur specifik den skapade neurala modellen är. Resultaten i Experiment 1 i Delrapport IV visar att habituationstakten förblev densamma under hela experimentet även om den avvikande tonen byttes ut under experimentets gång. Detta tillsammans med resultaten i Experiment 3 i Delrapport IV, där habituation kunde påvisas även om modaliteten av den avvikande händelsen byttes från auditiv till visuell och vice versa, indikerar att den neurala modellen är av en mer allmän karaktär än vad man tidigare trott. Syftet med Experiment 2 i Delrapport IV var att undersöka vilka egenskaper i ljudmiljön som påverkar habituationstakten. Upptäckten att takten var likvärdig oavsett om det fanns ett fast eller ett slumpmässigt intervall mellan de avvikande tonerna tyder på att det är mängden förekomster (dvs. antalet avvikande toner), snarare än predicerbarhet, som avgör habituationstakten

Hur olika faktorer påverkar minnesprestation - en analys med användning av bootstrap

The current paper examines to what extent different factors influence our ability to remember. Data used in the analysis origins from a psychological memory experiment conducted at the University of Lund. During the study phase of the experiment, participants viewed different objects which could either appear as a word or a picture. The object type was randomly chosen which resulted in varying sequences of each object type. In the later test phase participants were asked about the objects and their properties. One of the factors analyzed is what impact the switching of object type has on the memory performance. In order to examine this, data was split up into categories depending on if a switch was present or not. Each participant’s mean was calculated for each category. Any potential differences between the categories were then compared by using bootstrap. The second factor examined concerns if the position (beginning, middle or end) of the object during the study phase influences the performance. The procedure used had much resemblance with the above mentioned calculations. Results from these two analyses suggest that the switching of object type has quite an impact on memory performance while the position during the study phase hardly affects the performance at all. MatLab, MS Excel and SPSS were utilized for the analyses

Retrieval-Induced Forgetting and Its Effects on Episodic Memory

Remembering and forgetting are closely related and paradoxically it seems as if the very act of remembering in some cases can lead to forgetting. The aim of present study is to examine if there is a difference in retrieval-induced-forgetting effect concerning different types of binding in long-term-memory. To investigate any potential differences two different associations were chosen; face-face and face-place. To investigate a potential impact of an emotionally loaded stimulus, both item types could appear as either neutral or negative. We found that the between-domain binding (place) generated more interference than the withindomain binding (face) and this in turn resulted in a greater RIF effect for item type place in trial type consisting of a neutral face and a neutral place compared to item type face in trial type consisting of a negative face and a neutral place. Furthermore, results indicate that a negative item type greatly reduces memory performance for both the neutral and the negative items

Expectations modulate the magnitude of attentional capture by auditory eventswith working memory capacity

What determines the magnitude of attentional capture by deviant sound events? We combined the cross-modal oddballdistraction paradigm with sequence learning to address this question. Participants responded to visual targets, eachpreceded by tones that formed a repetitive cross-trial standard sequence. In Experiment 1, with the standard tone sequence…-660-440-660-880-… Hz, either the 440 Hz or the 880 Hz standard was occasionally replaced by one of two deviant tones(220 Hz and 1100 Hz), that either differed slightly (by 220 Hz) or markedly (by 660 Hz) from the replaced standard. InExperiment 2, with the standard tone sequence …-220-660-440-660-880-660-1100-… Hz, the 440 Hz and the 880 Hzstandard was occasionally replaced by either a 220 Hz or a 1100 Hz pattern deviant. In both experiments, a high-pitchdeviant was more captivating when it replaced a low-pitch standard, and a low-pitch deviant was more captivating when itreplaced a high-pitch standard. These results indicate that the magnitude of attentional capture by deviant sound eventsdepends on the discrepancy between the deviant event and the expected event, not on perceived local change