The Effect of Auditory Distractors in Varied Languages on Recall and Recognition

Publication Date

4-2026

College

College of Sciences & Mathematics

Department

Psychological Sciences and Neurosciences, Department of

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Michael Oliver

Presentation Type

Talk/Oral

Summary

Auditory distraction has been shown to impair attention, memory, and language processing, particularly in tasks that rely on working memory (Gustafson et al., 2023). While previous research shows that background speech can disrupt recall, there is limited work regarding how the language of auditory distractors influences memory performance (Zeamer & Fox Tree, 2013). This study investigates whether distractor language (familiar vs. unfamiliar) differentially affects written recall and recognition. Using a within-subjects design, approximately 30 university students completed reading-based memory tasks under two conditions: no distractor (control) and an English-language distractor or a Mandarin-language distractor. Participants read short passages and completed both free-response recall and multiple-choice recognition tasks, with performance measured by accuracy. Data was analyzed using paired-samples t-tests. It was hypothesized that performance would be highest in the no-distraction condition and that unfamiliar-language distractors would be less disruptive than familiar-language distractors due to reduced semantic interference. These findings are expected to contribute to theories of attention and working memory by clarifying the role of linguistic familiarity in distraction. Practically, results may inform strategies for minimizing cognitive interference in educational and workplace settings and guide future research on multilingual auditory environments.

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