ERP correlates of the irrelevant sound effect.

The irrelevant sound effect refers to a decrement in serial-recall performance when auditory distractors are played during encoding or retention of the to-be-remembered items. We examined the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) that were elicited in response to the auditory distractors during encoding and retention of visually presented target sequences. Changing-state distractor sequences that consisted of several different distractor items interfered more with serial recall than steady-state sequences that consisted of repetitions of a single distractor item. The ERP responses that were elicited in response to the distractors comprised the exogenous N1 component and were further characterized by a subsequent positive wave, and a late negativity. The changing-state effect was associated with an increased N1 and a P3a. The results support the attention-capture account of the irrelevant sound effect.