Metacognition of Auditory Distraction

• Applicant: Dr. Raoul Bell
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 495367142

While metacognitive judgments of learning have received much attention for some time and also in the recent past, metacognitive judgments of distraction about the effects of task-irrelevant stimuli on cognitive performance are less well understood. However, metacognitive judgments about the effects of task-irrelevant stimuli on cognitive performance are important not only for theory development and testing but also from a practical point of view because they can determine decisions about the design of learning and work environments. The aim of the project is to develop a theoretical framework for understanding metacognitive judgments about the effects of auditory distractors on cognitive performance. This requires a systematic and comprehensive analysis of metacognitive judgments about auditory distraction. A central question is whether people have a direct access to the processes underlying auditory distraction or base their judgments on simple heuristics such as the processing fluency heuristic or on abstract metacognitive beliefs. To test this, the perceived processing fluency is manipulated across a series of experiments in which the effects of stimulus reversal, masking, and stream segregation on the perceived processing fluency, on metacognitive judgments, and on cognitive performance are examined. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of metacognitive judgments of distraction, abstract metacognitive beliefs, prospective stimulus-specific judgments as well as retrospective episodic judgments will be assessed. In a first step, the project focuses on cases which are particularly interesting when it come to tests of theoretical predictions. These are cases in which it is likely to find discrepancies between heuristic-based metacognitive judgments and performance effects. In a second step, the project distinguishes between the influence of abstract metacognitive beliefs and experience-based factors such as the perceived processing fluency. Half of the experiments are focussed on metacognitive judgments about task-irrelevant background speech; the other half of the experiments are designed to test whether these effects can be replicated with music. The project extends existing research lines in an innovative way by using theories and methods that are already well established in research on judgments of learning, and applying them to judgments of distraction. This research question is of practical relevance as well: Incorrect judgments about the effects of auditory distractors on cognitive performance could lead people to make false decisions when designing learning and work environments. Established knowledge about systematic errors in metacognitive judgments about the effects of task-irrelevant stimuli on performance could help to avoid wrong decisions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants