Distractor Words Research Articles

Active inhibition of a distractor word: The distractor precue benefit in the Stroop color-naming task.

The current study investigated attentional control through active inhibition of the identity of the distractor. Adapting a Stroop paradigm, the distractor word was presented in advance and made to disappear, followed by the presentation of a Stroop stimulus. Participants were instructed to inhibit the distractor in order to reduce its interference. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that the distractor precue facilitated Stroop color naming by reducing Stroop interference. Experiment 3 demonstrated beneficial effects of the distractor precue when congruent trials were introduced. Experiment 4 showed that the distractor precue benefit was observed when the cue and target were in different forms. Experiment 5 indicated that if the item used as the cue became the target, naming it took longer in order to overcome the inhibitory effect. Experiment 6 demonstrated that the benefit of the distractor precue was not observed when the cue was uninformative. Finally, Experiment 7 demonstrated that active inhibition required working-memory resources to operate. This study suggests that the best explanation for the distractor precue benefit is the active inhibition account.

Delighted and distracted: Positive affect increases priming for irrelevant information.

Emotional states are known to influence how people process relevant information. Here, we address the impact of emotional state on irrelevant information. In this experiment, participants were randomly assigned to a neutral or positive mood induction, and then completed a task that involved viewing a sequence of overlapping pictures and words. They were instructed to attend to the pictures and ignore the distracting words. Following a filled interval, implicit memory for the distracting words was tested using a word fragment completion task. Individuals in the positive mood group showed increased implicit memory for previously irrelevant information compared to those in the neutral mood group. These findings are consistent with the view that positive mood broadens attention to include encoding of irrelevant information in the environment, and this can impact subsequent performance.

Selective attention and distractor frequency in naming performance: Comment on Dhooge and Hartsuiker (2010).

E. Dhooge and R. J. Hartsuiker (2010) reported experiments showing that picture naming takes longer with low- than high-frequency distractor words, replicating M. Miozzo and A. Caramazza (2003). In addition, they showed that this distractor-frequency effect disappears when distractors are masked or preexposed. These findings were taken to refute models like WEAVER++ (A. Roelofs, 2003) in which words are selected by competition. However, Dhooge and Hartsuiker do not take into account that according to this model, picture-word interference taps not only into word production but also into attentional processes. Here, the authors indicate that WEAVER++ contains an attentional mechanism that accounts for the distractor-frequency effect (A. Roelofs, 2005). Moreover, the authors demonstrate that the model accounts for the influence of masking and preexposure, and does so in a simpler way than the response exclusion through self-monitoring account advanced by Dhooge and Hartsuiker.

Attentional Inhibition in Bilingual Naming Performance: Evidence from Delta-Plot Analyses

It has been argued that inhibition is a mechanism of attentional control in bilingual language performance. Evidence suggests that effects of inhibition are largest in the tail of a response time (RT) distribution in non-linguistic and monolingual performance domains. We examined this for bilingual performance by conducting delta-plot analyses of naming RTs. Dutch–English bilingual speakers named pictures using English while trying to ignore superimposed neutral Xs or Dutch distractor words that were semantically related, unrelated, or translations. The mean RTs revealed semantic, translation, and lexicality effects. The delta plots leveled off with increasing RT, more so when the mean distractor effect was smaller as compared with larger. This suggests that the influence of inhibition is largest toward the distribution tail, corresponding to what is observed in other performance domains. Moreover, the delta plots suggested that more inhibition was applied by high- than low-proficiency individuals in the unrelated than the other distractor conditions. These results support the view that inhibition is a domain-general mechanism that may be optionally engaged depending on the prevailing circumstances.

Irrelevant Words Trigger an Attentional Blink

It has been argued that salient distractor items displayed during rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) trigger an attentional blink (AB) when they share features with the target item. Here we demonstrate that salient distractor words induce an AB independently of feature overlap with the target. In two experiments a color-highlighted irrelevant word preceded a target by a variable lag in an RSVP series of false font strings. Target identification was reduced at short relative to long temporal lags between the distractor word and the target, irrespective of feature sharing with the distractor word. When the target shared features with the distractor word, target accuracy was reduced across all lags. Accordingly, feature sharing between the distractor word and the target did not amplify the AB, but had an additive effect on attentional capture by the distractor word.

Erratum to: Impact of phonology on the generation of handwritten responses: Evidence from picture—word interference tasks

The degree to which phonological codes constrain handwriting is at present controversial. Two experiments used a picture-word interference paradigm in which participants wrote down the names of pictures while attempting to ignore visual distractor words presented at various time intervals (SOAs). Distractors could be orthographically and phonologically related, orthographically related only, or unrelated. We found an exclusive effect of phonology at an early SOA, and orthographic priming at a later SOA. In a second experiment, we showed that the effect of phonology was diminished when writers engaged in concurrent articulatory suppression. The results suggest a role of phonology in the generation of handwritten words that is to some extent dependent on situational circumstances.

Language selection in bilingual word production: Electrophysiological evidence for cross-language competition

Previous research has demonstrated that cross-language activation is present even when proficient bilinguals perform a task only in one language. The present study investigated the time-course of cross-language activation during word production in a second language (L2) by using a picture–word interference paradigm with event-related potentials (ERPs). Spanish–English bilinguals living in an L2 environment named pictures in their L2 English while ignoring L2 English distractor words that were visually presented with the pictures. Participants named pictures more slowly when distractors were semantically related or phonologically related to either the English name of the picture or the Spanish name of the picture than when picture and distractor word were unrelated. Interference was also detectable in the mean amplitude of the N2 peak (200–260ms) and the N3 range (350–400ms). The results suggest that lexical alternatives from both languages compete for selection in the process of L2 speech planning in a predominantly L2 context.

Basic processes in reading: Spatial attention as a necessary preliminary to orthographic and semantic processing

The question of whether words can be identified without spatial attention has been a topic of considerable interest over the last five and a half decades, but the literature has yielded mixed conclusions. The present experiments manipulated the proportion of valid trials (the proportion of trials in which a cue appeared in the same location as the upcoming target word) so as to encourage distributed (50% valid cues; Experiments 1 and 3) or focused (100% valid cues; Experiments 2 and 4) spatial attention in a priming-type paradigm. Participants read aloud a target word, and the impact of a simultaneously presented distractor word was assessed. Semantic and orthographic priming effects were present when conditions promoted distributed spatial attention but absent when conditions promoted focused spatial attention. In contrast, Experiment 5 yielded a distractor word effect in the 100% valid cue condition when subjects identified a colour (Stroop task). We take these results to suggest that (1) spatial attention is a necessary preliminary to visual word recognition and (2) examining the role of spatial attention in the context of the Stroop task may have few implications for basic processes in reading because colour processing makes fewer demands on spatial attention than does visual word recognition.

Pupillary Stroop effects.

We recorded the pupil diameters of participants performing the words’ color-naming Stroop task (i.e., naming the color of a word that names a color). Non-color words were used as baseline to firmly establish the effects of semantic relatedness induced by color word distractors. We replicated the classic Stroop effects of color congruency and color incongruency with pupillary diameter recordings: relative to non-color words, pupil diameters increased for color distractors that differed from color responses, while they reduced for color distractors that were identical to color responses. Analyses of the time courses of pupil responses revealed further differences between color-congruent and color-incongruent distractors, with the latter inducing a steep increase of pupil size and the former a relatively lower increase. Consistent with previous findings that have demonstrated that pupil size increases as task demands rise, the present results indicate that pupillometry is a robust measure of Stroop interference, and it represents a valuable addition to the cognitive scientist’s toolbox.

Confabulation versus experimentally induced false memories in Korsakoff patients

The present study focuses on both the clinical symptom of confabulation and experimentally induced false memories in patients suffering from Korsakoff's syndrome. Despite the vast amount of case studies of confabulating patients and studies investigating false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, the nature of Korsakoff patients' confabulatory behaviour and its association with DRM false memories have been rarely examined. Hence, the first aim of the present study was to evaluate confabulatory responses in a large sample of chronic Korsakoff patients and matched controls by means of the Dalla Barba Confabulation Battery. Second, the association between (provoked) confabulation and the patients' DRM false recognition performance was investigated. Korsakoff patients mainly confabulated in response to questions about episodic memory and questions to which the answer was unknown. A positive association was obtained between confabulation and the tendency to accept unstudied distractor words as being old in the DRM paradigm. On the other hand, there was a negative association between confabulation and false recognition of critical lures. The latter could be attributed to the importance of strategic retrieval at delayed memory testing.

Phonological advance planning in sentence production

Our study addresses the scope of phonological advance planning during sentence production using a novel experimental procedure. The production of German sentences in various syntactic formats (SVO, SOV, and VSO) was cued by presenting pictures of the agents of previously memorized agent–action–patient scenes. To tap the phonological activation of the agent (encoded as sentence subject) and the patient (encoded as sentence object), auditory distractor words, which were either phonologically related to the subject, or to the object, or were unrelated to both, were used. Compared with the unrelated control condition, distractors related to the subject in the utterance-initial phrase facilitated the response, while distractors related to the subject or to the object appearing in a non-initial phrase interfered with the response. Because some automatic phonological activation resulting from the perceptual processing of the visual stimulus cannot be responsible for the object-related interference effects, our results suggest that phonological advance planning exceeds a single syntactic phrase and may even span a whole simple sentence. The data are discussed in the context of current models of phonological encoding.

Age of Acquisition, Word Frequency, and Picture–Word Interference

In two experiments participants named pictures superimposed with unrelated words. The age of acquisition (AoA) of the picture names was manipulated. Additionally, the word frequency (WF, Experiment 1) or AoA (Experiment 2) of the interfering distractor words was manipulated. Early-acquired pictures were named faster than their late-acquired counterparts. Both WF and AoA modulated the degree of interference from the irrelevant word; low-frequency and late-acquired words produced most interference. In neither case did the WF or AoA of the distractor word interact with the AoA of the picture. The results show that in the context of word processing both WF and AoA have similar effects.

Impact of phonology on the generation of handwritten responses: Evidence from picture-word interference tasks

The degree to which phonological codes constrain handwriting is at present controversial. Two experiments used a picture-word interference paradigm in which participants wrote down the names of pictures while attempting to ignore visual distractor words presented at various time intervals (SOAs). Distractors could be orthographically and phonologically related, orthographically related only, or unrelated. We found an exclusive effect of phonology at an early SOA, and orthographic priming at a later SOA. In a second experiment, we showed that the effect of phonology was diminished when writers engaged in concurrent articulatory suppression. The results suggest a role of phonology in the generation of handwritten words that is to some extent dependent on situational circumstances.

The word class effect in the picture–word interference paradigm

The word class effect in the picture-word interference paradigm is a highly influential finding that has provided some of the most compelling support for word class constraints on lexical selection. However, methodological concerns called for a replication of the most convincing of those effects. Experiment 1 was a direct replication of Pechmann and Zerbst (2002; Experiment 4). Participants named pictures of objects in the context of noun and adverb distractors. Naming took place in bare noun and sentence frame contexts. A word class effect emerged in both bare noun and sentence frame naming conditions, suggesting a semantic origin of the effect. In Experiment 2, participants named objects in the context of noun and verb distractors whose word class relationship to the target and imageability were orthogonally manipulated. As before, naming took place in bare noun and sentence frame naming contexts. In both naming contexts, distractor imageability but not word class affected picture naming latencies. These findings confirm the sensitivity of the picture-word interference paradigm to distractor imageability and suggest the paradigm is not sensitive to distractor word class. The results undermine the use of the word class effect in the picture-word interference paradigm as supportive of word class constraints during lexical selection.

Attentional and Memory Biases Among Weight Dissatisfied Young Women: Evidence from a Dichotic Listening Paradigm

This study investigated attentional and memory biases within the auditory domain among emerging adult women with high levels of fatness and weight concern. A sample of 116 Chinese undergraduate women screened into groups high and low in self-reported weight dissatisfaction engaged in a dichotic listening task. Participants were instructed to shadow (repeat aloud) neutral passages in the attended ear and respond to visual probes, while ignoring distractors (fat, thin, or neutral words) in the unattended ear. Results indicated that weight dissatisfied women made more shadowing errors in the presence of both fat and thin distractor words compared to weight satisfied women, although groups did not differ in error rates for neutral words. Weight dissatisfied women were also more likely to falsely recognize newly introduced fat words as familiar in a subsequent word recognition task. These effects were maintained after controlling for group differences in body mass index. Findings suggest selective information processing biases related to weight concerns extend to the auditory realm.

Serotonin transporter gene and inhibition of conflicting emotional information

Genetic variation of the serotonin-transporter-linked promoter region has been reported to be associated with susceptibility to mood disorders. However, little is known about the behavioral characteristics that mediate this genetic variation and susceptibility to depression. We examined whether the serotonin-transporter genotype modulates inhibition of facial expressions and emotional words in the emotional 'face-word' Stroop task. Although negative word distractors interfered with the valence identification of positive faces among carriers of two short alleles, positive word distractors interfered with that of negative faces among carriers of one or two long alleles. We discuss a possible role of the reduced inhibitory control over semantic negative information in carriers of two short alleles in the risk of developing depressive mental state.

The Encoding of Constituent Morphemes in the Oral Production of Chinese Disyllable Compound Words

In the last twenty years, researchers of language production have been interested in the encoding of the morphologically simple and complex words. Studies in this area have focused on the processing of semantic, phonology and orthographic information, and on whether the morphological structure of words affects how the words are represented and accessed. In studies of Indo-European languages, there is accumulated evidence that the constituent morphemes have a salient priming effect in the oral production of compound words (Roelofs, A. 1996; Zwitserlood, 2002). However, there is no agreement concerning the role of the semantic, orthographic and phonological information in the processing, and the time course of this information processing (Damian, 2003; Dohmes, 2004; Meunier, F. Longtin, C. M., 2007; Fornells, A. R., Schmitt, B. M., Kutas, M., Muntea, T. F., 2002). Research on language comprehension in Chinese has also emphasized the importance of morphemes. This is particularly apparent in research using compound words, showing that semantic, phonological, and orthographic factors of morphemes, as well as the frequency of morphemes affect the access of the whole word (Zhou, et al., 1999. In the domain of language production, we only know of three studies that have explored the morphological encoding of mandarin Chinese. These studies have found that only the phonological information of the morphemes can promote the production of compound words, with not much influence from and orthographic information (Chen T. M. Chen J. Y., 2006, 2007; Chen, J. Y., Chen, T. M., Dell, G. S. 2002). These three studies, however, used an implicit prime paradigm, yielding results that departed from studies of Indo-European language and of Chinese language comprehension. Other paradigms are thus needed for further verification of these findings. The present study investigated the activation - and its time course - of morphemes in Chinese disyllable compound words using a classical experimental method in language-production research: the picture-word interference paradigm. We hypothesized that morphemes can be encoded and that there would be facilitation both phonological and orthographical. We also hypothesized a inhabitation in the oral production of compound words. The present study includes three experiments. In the first one, we investigated the activation of morphemes in Chinese disyllable compound words with four kinds of distractor words (i.e., morphological, orthographic, phonological, and control) presented in different stimulus onset asynchrony SOA (i.e., -100ms, 0ms, 100ms) as participants (N = 39) named pictures. In Experiment Two we investigated the function of morpheme position in the Chinese disyllable compound words production and explored the role of information. In this experiment (N = 42), we used the same design as in Experiment One but consider both morphemes of the words and changed the SOA (?200ms, 100ms). In Experiment Three (N = 18), we further investigated the activation of morphemes in the Chinese disyllable compound words production. For this, we set a semantic relative prime to compare with the morphological prime. The results of these experiments showed that the orthographic and phonological information of morphemes can facilitate the production of Chinese disyllable compound words. However, information had no salient effects in either initial or second morpheme. Furthermore the orthographic effects came early than the phonological ones. The results of this study imply that the phonological and orthographic information of morphemes can facilitate the production of Chinese disyllable compound words but the information may have a complex role. Moreover, there seems to be no morphological encoding in the oral production of Chinese disyllable compound words. The time course of morpheme activation in Chinese disyllable compound words is similar to the mono-syllable, with orthographic activation first (SOA=-200ms) followed by phonological activation (SOA= 100ms). The position of the morphemes had no salient effect in the production of Chinese disyllable compound words.

Distractor word meaning the target-defining color elicits the attentional blink

Distractor word meaning the target-defining color elicits the attentional blink

Rejecting familiar distracters during recognition in young adults with traumatic brain injury and in healthy older adults

The most common cognitive complaint reported by healthy older adults and young adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) is memory difficulties. We investigated the effects of normal aging and the long-term effects of TBI in young adults on the susceptibility to incorrectly endorse distracter information on a memory test. Prior to a study phase, participants viewed a "pre-exposure" list containing distracter words, presented once or three times, and half of the target study words. Subsequently, during the study phase, all target words were presented such that, across lists, study words were viewed either once or three times. On the recognition test, TBI and older adult participants were more likely to falsely endorse "pre-exposed" distracter words viewed three times as being from the target study list, compared to non-head-injured young controls. Normal aging and head injury in young may similarly compromise one's ability to reject highly familiar, but distracting, information during recognition. Older adult and TBI participants were also slower to complete the Trail Making task and had poorer output on a Digit Span task, suggesting these two populations share a deficit in executive function and working memory. Similar changes in frontal lobe function may underlie these shared cognitive deficits.

Positive mood is associated with the implicit use of distraction.

Previous research demonstrates that individuals in a positive mood are differentially distracted by irrelevant information during an ongoing task (Rowe et al. in Proc Natl Acad Sci 104:383-388, 2007). The present study investigated whether susceptibility to distraction shown by individuals in a positive mood results in greater implicit memory for that distraction. Participants performed a similarity-judgment task on pictures that were superimposed with distracting words. When these previously distracting words could be used as solutions on a delayed implicit task administered several minutes later, performance was positively correlated with pleasantness of mood. Individuals in a positive mood are more likely than others to use previously irrelevant information to facilitate performance on a subsequent implicit task, a finding with implications for the relationship between positive mood and creativity.