New study: Ignoring distracting sounds is not as easy as you think
Mental suppression, trying not to think of or mentally avoiding the experience of unpleasant thoughts or sensations, is a commonly used cognitive coping strategy. However, research has shown that suppression may not be effective, and may sometimes have counterproductive consequences.
The study presents results from two experiments conducted with university students to investigate the consequences of mental suppression in response to potentially distracting sound. Results suggested that attempting to suppress the sensation of a task-irrelevant sound can influence loudness perception and performance on a subsequent cognitive task when the sound is presented in the background.
These findings suggest that how we mentally deal with distracting sounds can affect our experience and performance over time, which could have implications for the psychological processes underlying conditions like hyperacusis (extreme sound sensitivity) and tinnitus.
Read the full article here:
Kolbeinsson, Ö., Asutay, E., Enström, M., Sand, J., & Hesser, H. (2022). No sound is more distracting than the one you’re trying not to hear: Delayed costs of mental control of task-irrelevant neutral and emotional sounds. BMC Psychology, 10(33). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-022-00751-6