Detection Of Reward-associated Auditory Under Cross-channel Inattentional Deafness:the Role Of Perceptual Load And Expectation

Conscious perception of an auditory stimulus usually fails when an auditory stimulus appears unexpectedly and our attention is being focused on a visual task(cross-channel inattentional deafness).Although many studies have identified various factors that modulate the likelihood of failure of this cross-channel awareness,few studies have considered whether the meaningfulness of auditory stimuli,especially those with monetary reward value,affects the detection of them in individuals under conditions of inattention.This study examines the effect of value-driven attributes of auditory stimuli on inattentional deafness from the perspective of value attributes of non-expected stimuli and tests the stability of value-driven attributes of auditory stimuli affecting inattentional deafness across visual perceptual load and expectation differences.Therefore,this paper provides a more complete examination of the effects of value-driven properties of auditory stimuli on inattentional deafness through three studies to provide an empirical research basis for enriching the theoretical framework and practical results in the field of inattentional deafness.Study 1 used a one-way between-subjects design to test whether the value-driven properties of auditory stimuli in a moderate visual perceptual load context affect the incidence of inattentional deafness,with the dependent variable being the subject’s inattentional deafness rate in the key trial subsets(The rest of the studies are the same).The results found that the inattentional deafness rate was significantly lower in the monetary reward value-driven group than in the no-value-driven group.Study 2 further explored the effect of value-driven properties of auditory stimuli on inattentional deafness under both high and low visual perceptual load conditions.2 visual perceptual load level(high load/low load)× 2value-driven attribute of non-expected auditory stimuli(reward value-driven/no value-driven)in a two-factor between-subjects design,with the dependent variable remaining the subject’s inattentional deafness rate in the key trial.The main result found no significant difference in inattentional deafness rate between the monetary reward value-driven and non-value-driven groups under high/low visual perceptual load.Study 3 then examines the effect of value-driven properties of auditory stimuli on inattentional deafness from the perspective of expectations of auditory stimuli,an individual difference,and consists of a pre-experiment and a formal experiment.Experiment 3a(pre-experiment)tested the validity of the experimental expectancy manipulation of auditory stimuli.A one-way between-subjects design was used,with the dependent variable being the rate of inattentional deafness in the key trial subsets.Experiment 3b(formal experiment)then examined the effect of value-driven properties of auditory stimuli on inattentional deafness in the expectation versus non-expectation conditions.A two-factor between-subjects design of 2(expectancy type: expected,no expectancy)× 2(value-driven type: reward value-driven,no value-driven)was used,and the dependent variable was the same rate of inattentional deafness in the key trial subsets.The main findings were that(1)the inattentional deafness rate in the presence of expectation for unexpected auditory stimuli was significantly lower than that in the no-expectation condition.(2)the inattentional deafness rate in the expectation condition was not significantly different between the monetary reward value-driven group and the no-value-driven group;whereas the inattentional deafness rate in the no-expectation condition was significantly higher in the monetary reward value-driven group than in the no-value-driven group.Taken together,the above studies lead to the following conclusions:(1)Value-driven properties of auditory stimuli have a significant effect on inattentional deafness.Individuals were more likely to perceive auditory stimuli driven by the value of monetary rewards,although this effect was situation-dependent and only present in situations of moderate visual perceptual load.(2)The dominance effect on detection of auditory stimuli driven by the value of monetary rewards was moderated by individual expectations of the auditory stimuli;this dominance effect on detection disappeared when subjects developed expectations of the auditory stimuli,while the detection dominance remained in the non-expectation condition.In contrast to the meaningfulness of the stimulus itself,attentional setting dominates the process of determining whether a stimulus can be detected.