NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Showing all 6 results Save | Export
Background Music Stints Creativity: Evidence from Compound Remote Associate Tasks
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Threadgold, Emma; Marsh, John E.; McLatchie, Neil; Ball, Linden J. – Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2019
Background music has been claimed to enhance people's creativity. In three experiments, we investigated the impact of background music on performance of Compound Remote Associate Tasks (CRATs), which are widely thought to tap creativity. Background music with foreign (unfamiliar) lyrics (Experiment 1), instrumental music without lyrics (Experiment…
Descriptors: Music, Creativity, Novelty (Stimulus Dimension), Familiarity
When Is Forewarned Forearmed? Predicting Auditory Distraction in Short-Term Memory
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Hughes, Robert W.; Marsh, John E. – Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2020
Two experiments critically examined a predictive-coding based account of the vulnerability of short-term memory (STM) to auditory distraction, particularly the disruptive effect of changing-state sound on verbal serial recall. Experiment 1 showed that providing participants with the opportunity to predict the contents of an imminent spoken…
Descriptors: Auditory Stimuli, Short Term Memory, Prediction, Acoustics
Attentional Capture by Deviant Sounds: A Noncontingent Form of Auditory Distraction?
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Vachon, François; Labonté, Katherine; Marsh, John E. – Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2017
The occurrence of an unexpected, infrequent sound in an otherwise homogeneous auditory background tends to disrupt the ongoing cognitive task. This "deviation effect" is typically explained in terms of attentional capture whereby the deviant sound draws attention away from the focal activity, regardless of the nature of this activity.…
Descriptors: Attention, Auditory Stimuli, Verbal Stimuli, Short Term Memory
Task Demands Modulate the Effects of Speech on Text Processing
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Meng, Zhu; Lan, Zebo; Yan, Guoli; Marsh, John E.; Liversedge, Simon P. – Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2020
Task-irrelevant background sound can disrupt performance of visually based cognitive tasks. The cross-modal breakdown of attentional selectivity in the context of reading was addressed using analyses of eye movements. Moreover, the study addressed whether task-sensitivity to distraction via background speech on reading was modulated by the…
Descriptors: Speech Acts, Language Processing, Task Analysis, Reading Processes
The Functional Determinants of Short-Term Memory: Evidence from Perceptual-Motor Interference in Verbal Serial Recall
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Hughes, Robert W.; Marsh, John E. – Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2017
A functional, perceptual-motor, account of serial short-term memory (STM) is examined by investigating the way in which an irrelevant spoken sequence interferes with verbal serial recall. Even with visual list-presentation, verbal serial recall is particularly susceptible to disruption by irrelevant spoken stimuli that have the same identity…
Descriptors: Short Term Memory, Interference (Learning), Recall (Psychology), Serial Learning
Retrieval from Memory: Vulnerable or Inviolable?
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Jones, Dylan M.; Marsh, John E.; Hughes, Robert W. – Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2012
We show that retrieval from semantic memory is vulnerable even to the mere presence of speech. Irrelevant speech impairs semantic fluency--namely, lexical retrieval cued by a semantic category name--but only if it is meaningful (forward speech compared to reversed speech or words compared to nonwords). Moreover, speech related semantically to the…
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Memory, Recall (Psychology), Vocabulary