The irrelevant-speech effect and children: theoretical implications of developmental change.

Full Abstract

The irrelevant-speech effect refers to the finding of impaired recall performance in the presence of irrelevant auditory stimuli. Two broad classes of theories exist for the effect, both allowing automatic entry of the distracting sounds into the processing system but differing in how attention is involved. As one source of evidence in the discussion of existing theories of the irrelevant-speech effect, the performance of children and adults on a visual serial recall task with irrelevant sounds (speech and tones) was examined. The magnitude of the effects of irrelevant sounds on performance decreased with age. The developmental differences were marked in the conditions with the greatest need for attentional control (words and especially changing words). The findings were interpreted with respect to current models of memory. Theories of the irrelevant-speech effect that include a role for attentional control were better suited to handle the results than those without a specified role for attention.

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Author information

Author/s: Elliott, Emily M (EM);

Affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia 65211, USA. elliottem@missouri.edu

Grants: R01 HD-21338 (Agency:United States NICHD)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Memory & cognition (Mem Cognit), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Apr; vol 30 (issue 3) : pp 478-87

Dates: Created 2002/06/13; Completed 2002/07/03; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 12061768, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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