Auditory Distraction and Short-term Memory: Phenomena and Practical Implications

Irrelevant sound tends to break through selective attention and impair cognitive performance. This observation has been brought under systematic scrutiny by laboratory studies measuring interference with memory performance during exposure to irrelevant sound. These studies established that the degree of interference depends on the properties of the irrelevant sound as well as those of the cognitive task. The way in which this interference increases or diminishes as characteristics of the sound and of the cognitive task are changed reveals key functional characteristics of auditory distraction. A number of important practical implications that arise from these studies are discussed, including the finding that relatively quiet background sound will have a marked effect on efficiency in performing cognitive tasks.