Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of auditory distraction on working memory by using verbal recall with a sentence repetition test of 22 sentences. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: the control group (Group A, n = 20), and three experimental groups (Group B, n=20; Group C, n=20, and Group D, n=20). Participants in each group listened to prerecorded sentences and had six seconds in which to repeat the sentence. While the control group had no additional stimuli present, Group B was exposed to their preferred genre of music in the background, Group C was exposed to their least preferred genre of music, and Group D was exposed to competing speech in the background. Prior to testing, participants reported on music preferences. Following testing, participants hearing music indicated familiarity of the pieces and self-perceived performance based on the distracters. Using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), no statistically significant differences were found among any groups (SCORE x GROUP), F(3) = 0.587; p > 0.05. The disparity of non-native English speaking participants among groups may have resulted in possible confounding, although overt comprehension of sentences was not being tested. Perceived performance enhancement was evident in the group exposed to their preferred genre of music as a distracter, despite the fact that actual performance was no different from the other groups. Such perceived enhancement lends itself to support an arousal theory of at least self-perceived enhancement. It is theorized that the age of participants (mean age of 23.6 years old) may in fact be an optimal period of resistance to distracters, regardless of type of distracter. Further investigation into more specialized groups with known deficits, such as patients with dementia of the Alzheimer’s type with identifiable neurological deficits, may lead to greater differences in auditory distraction using music preference and competing speech.
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