RETRACTED ARTICLE: Unexpected events disrupt visuomotor working memory and increase guessing

Finzi, Dawn; Postle, Bradley R.; Brady, Timothy F.; Aron, Adam R.

doi:10.3758/s13423-017-1319-3

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 36 publications

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“…Behavioral and electrophysiological studies have shown that deviance distraction originates from the violation of sensory predictions rather than from the deviant sound’s low probability per se [ 42 – 46 ], is associated with a transient inhibition of actions [ 47 – 50 ], and is unaffected by response predictability [ 51 ]. Violations of predictions can potentially also take another form, however: the omission of the predicted auditory stimulus.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distraction by violation of sensory predictions: Functional distinction between deviant sounds and unexpected silences

et al. 2022

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It has been established that participants performing a continuous categorization task respond significantly slower following the presentation of unexpected, task-irrelevant, auditory stimuli, compared to a repetitive (standard) sound. Evidence indicates that such distraction emerges because of the violation of sensory predictions. This has typically been studied by measuring the impact of replacing the repeated sound by a different sound on rare and unpredictable trials. Here, we examine the impact of a different type of violation: the mere omission of the standard sound. Capitalizing upon the recent finding that deviant sounds exert distinct effects on response times as a function of whether participants produced or withheld a response on the previous trial, we present the results of an experiment seeking to disentangle two potential effects of sound omission: deviance distraction and the removal of an unspecific warning signal. The results indicate that deviant sound and the unexpected omission of the standard sound impact response times through, at least partially, distinct mechanisms. Deviant sounds affect performance by triggering the orienting of attention towards a new sensory input. Sound omissions, in contrast, appear to affect performance in part because responses no longer benefit from an unspecific warning signal to prepare for action.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distraction by violation of sensory predictions: Functional distinction between deviant sounds and unexpected silences

et al. 2022

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Distraction by unexpected sounds: comparing response repetition and response switching

García-López,

Parmentier

2024

Front. Psychol.

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Numerous studies using oddball tasks have shown that unexpected sounds presented in a predictable or repeated sequence (deviant vs. standard sounds) capture attention and negatively impact ongoing behavioral performance. Here, we examine an aspect of this effect that has gone relatively unnoticed: the impact of deviant sounds is stronger for response repetitions than for response switches. Our approach was two-fold. First, we carried out a simulation to estimate the likelihood that stimuli sequences used in past work may not have used balanced proportions of response repetition and switch trials. More specifically, we sought to determine whether the larger distraction effect for response repetitions may have reflected a rarer, and thereby more surprising, occurrence of such trials. To do so, we simulated 10,000 stimuli sets for a 2-AFC task with a proportion of deviant trial of 0.1 or 0.16. Second, we carried out a 2-AFC oddball task in which participants judged the duration of a tone (short vs. long). We carefully controlled the sequence of stimuli to ensure to balance the proportions of response repetitions and response switches across the standard and deviant conditions. The results of the stimuli simulation showed that, contrary to our concerns, response switches were more likely than response repetitions when left uncontrolled for. This suggests that the larger distraction found for response repetition in past work may in fact have been underestimated. In the tone duration judgment task, the results showed a large impact of the response type on distraction as measured by response times: Deviants sounds significantly delayed response repetitions but notably accelerated switches. These findings suggest that deviant sound hinder response repetition and encourage or bias the cognitive system towards a change of responses. We discuss these findings in relation to the adaptive nature of the involuntary detection of unexpected stimuli and in relation to the notion of partial repetition costs. We argue that results are in line with the binding account as well as with the signaling theory.

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RETRACTED ARTICLE: Unexpected events disrupt visuomotor working memory and increase guessing

Cited by 2 publications

References 36 publications

Distraction by violation of sensory predictions: Functional distinction between deviant sounds and unexpected silences

Distraction by violation of sensory predictions: Functional distinction between deviant sounds and unexpected silences

Distraction by unexpected sounds: comparing response repetition and response switching

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