Abstract
The irrelevant speech effect is the impairment of task performance by the presentation of to-be-ignored speech stimuli. Typically, the irrelevant speech comprises a variety of sounds, but previous research (e.g., Jones, Madden, & Miles, 1992) has suggested that the deleterious effect of background speech is virtually eliminated if the speech comprises repetitions of a sound (e.g., “be, be, be”) or a single continuous sound (e.g., “beeeeeee”). Four experiments are reported that challenge this finding. Experiments 1, 2, and 4 show a substantial impairment in serial recall performance in the presence of a repeated sound, and Experiments 3 and 4 show a similar impairment of serial recall in the presence of a continuous sound. The relevance of these findings to several explanations of the irrelevant speech effect is discussed.
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This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH35873 to Michael J. Watkins. I would like to thank Brian Bornstein, Nelson Cowan, Dylan Jones, Stephanie LeCompte, and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on an earlier draft of this article.
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Lecompte, D.C. An irrelevant speech effect with repeated and continuous background speech. Psychon Bull Rev 2, 391–397 (1995). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03210978
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03210978