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Reduction in distraction due to perceptual load: A failure to replicate

Robert J. Snowden Orcid Logo, Nicola Gray Orcid Logo

Perception

Swansea University Author: Nicola Gray Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/03010066251364203

Abstract

Perceptual load theory states that there are limited processing resources, but that these must always be fully employed. It has been used to predict and explain the commonly reported finding that irrelevant distractors influence behaviour when the task has low load (such as processing just one targe...

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Published in: Perception
ISSN: 0301-0066 1468-4233
Published: SAGE Publications 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69979
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last_indexed 2025-09-13T06:16:58Z
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spelling 2025-09-12T15:40:56.6813973 v2 69979 2025-07-16 Reduction in distraction due to perceptual load: A failure to replicate d3dfb6fa4b6e057dd587f5e9f28a581f 0000-0003-3849-8118 Nicola Gray Nicola Gray true false 2025-07-16 PSYS Perceptual load theory states that there are limited processing resources, but that these must always be fully employed. It has been used to predict and explain the commonly reported finding that irrelevant distractors influence behaviour when the task has low load (such as processing just one target element) but not when the task has high load (processing many target elements). We attempted to replicate this effect over a series of six experiments that manipulated the location of the distractor, the duration of the display, and different levels of load. We examined both the distracting effects caused by a “neutral” distractor, and response-biases (congruence effects) that occur when the distractor is either congruent or incongruent with the target. Strong distraction and congruence effects were found with central distractors and weaker effects were found with peripheral distractors. These effects appeared to be independent of the level of perceptual load in all conditions. Our findings thus do not support the tenants of perceptual load theory and fail to replicate the many findings that do support this theory. Journal Article Perception 0 SAGE Publications 0301-0066 1468-4233 attentional capture, divided attention/resource competition, visual search, attention 6 8 2025 2025-08-06 10.1177/03010066251364203 COLLEGE NANME Psychology School COLLEGE CODE PSYS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee None 2025-09-12T15:40:56.6813973 2025-07-16T12:31:57.5270073 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Robert J. Snowden 0000-0001-9900-480x 1 Nicola Gray 0000-0003-3849-8118 2 69979__35085__173b3b4ce326497d8af3c2bb16295258.pdf 69979.VOR.pdf 2025-09-12T15:38:21.1274819 Output 937839 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0). true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Reduction in distraction due to perceptual load: A failure to replicate
spellingShingle Reduction in distraction due to perceptual load: A failure to replicate
Nicola Gray
title_short Reduction in distraction due to perceptual load: A failure to replicate
title_full Reduction in distraction due to perceptual load: A failure to replicate
title_fullStr Reduction in distraction due to perceptual load: A failure to replicate
title_full_unstemmed Reduction in distraction due to perceptual load: A failure to replicate
title_sort Reduction in distraction due to perceptual load: A failure to replicate
author_id_str_mv d3dfb6fa4b6e057dd587f5e9f28a581f
author_id_fullname_str_mv d3dfb6fa4b6e057dd587f5e9f28a581f_***_Nicola Gray
author Nicola Gray
author2 Robert J. Snowden
Nicola Gray
format Journal article
container_title Perception
container_volume 0
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 0301-0066
1468-4233
doi_str_mv 10.1177/03010066251364203
publisher SAGE Publications
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Perceptual load theory states that there are limited processing resources, but that these must always be fully employed. It has been used to predict and explain the commonly reported finding that irrelevant distractors influence behaviour when the task has low load (such as processing just one target element) but not when the task has high load (processing many target elements). We attempted to replicate this effect over a series of six experiments that manipulated the location of the distractor, the duration of the display, and different levels of load. We examined both the distracting effects caused by a “neutral” distractor, and response-biases (congruence effects) that occur when the distractor is either congruent or incongruent with the target. Strong distraction and congruence effects were found with central distractors and weaker effects were found with peripheral distractors. These effects appeared to be independent of the level of perceptual load in all conditions. Our findings thus do not support the tenants of perceptual load theory and fail to replicate the many findings that do support this theory.
published_date 2025-08-06T05:26:08Z
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score 11.090071

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