Working Memory
Irrelevant Sound Task
Also called: irrelevant sound effect, irrelevant speech effect, irrelevant speech task, unattended speech effect, changing-state effect, auditory distraction in serial recall
Measure how sound people try to ignore disrupts memory for order: digit lists recalled in order in quiet, with one tone repeated, or with tones that change in pitch.
11-14 minUntimed
Free to start: 10 free participants per account, then $0.99 per participant for academic research, or any yearly plan. Try it here first, with no account.
- Papers, 2021 to 2025
- 55
- Evidence grade
- D
- Registered clinical studies
- 0
What it measures
Measures how much sound that people try to ignore disrupts memory for order. Digits appear one at a time and are recalled in order while participants hear nothing, one tone repeated, or tones that change in pitch. The main score is the changing-state cost: recall with the repeated tone minus recall with the changing tones.
Constructs
- Serial recall
- Auditory distraction
- Short-term memory for order
- Selective attention
Research uses
- Auditory distraction and working memory research
- Research on noise and sound in work and study places
- Within-study group comparison
How the paradigm works
The Irrelevant Sound Task measures how much sound that people try to ignore disrupts memory for order. Sound that participants are told to ignore lowers serial recall of items seen on a screen (Colle and Welsh, 1976; Salamé and Baddeley, 1982), and much more when the sound changes from one item to the next than when one item repeats: the changing-state effect (Jones, Madden and Miles, 1992). A stream of tones that change in pitch disrupts recall too (Jones and Macken, 1993), so the task needs no words.
More about the paradigm
The test starts with the sound setup: the participant turns the device's volume until a steady 1 kHz tone is comfortable, through speakers or headphones. There is no headphone check: the effect does not rest on the two ears hearing different sounds, and it was the same at a high and a low overall level (Ellermeier and Hellbrück, 1998). Each list shows 8 digits from 1 to 9 one at a time at the center of the screen, each for 800 ms with a 200 ms blank, after a fixation cross of 1,000 ms, as in Elliott and colleagues (2022). After each list the participant enters the digits in the order shown, typed or tapped on an on-screen keypad, with no time limit; recall is in quiet. During a list the participant hears nothing, one tone repeated, or tones that change in pitch, and is told to ignore them. The tones are 150 ms sine tones, one every 250 ms from the first digit to the end of the last, 6 dB below the volume-setting tone, from the C major scale from C4 to C5: a steady list repeats one of them, and a changing list never plays the same tone twice in a row. Ten blocks each hold one list of each kind in an order drawn from the session's seed, 30 lists (standard; 6 to 15 blocks), after two practice lists with feedback. Lists of 7 or 9 digits are a setting. No list holds a run of three digits counting up or down by one, and none is given twice. Desktop, laptop, tablet or phone; about 11 to 14 minutes.
The main score is the changing-state cost: the share of digits entered in their place on steady lists minus the share on changing lists. The steady-state cost (quiet minus steady), the cost of changing tones against quiet, recall on each kind of list and recall at each place in the list come with it. With spoken letters, the changing-state effect was d = 1.16 for students in the lab, 0.98 for students online and 0.51 for an online panel (Elliott and colleagues, 2022). One person's cost is a difference between kinds of list, and such differences have retested at a correlation of 0.45 (Ellermeier and Zimmer, 1997), so the cost is best compared between groups. Scores support research and do not diagnose.
Scores
- Changing-State Cost%
- Share of digits entered in their place on steady lists minus the share on changing lists.
- Positive values mean the changing tones disrupted recall more; not a better or worse score
- Steady-State Cost%
- Share of digits entered in their place on quiet lists minus the share on steady lists.
- Positive values mean the repeated tone disrupted recall
- Changing Tones Against Quiet%
- Share of digits entered in their place on quiet lists minus the share on changing lists.
- Positive values mean the changing tones disrupted recall
- Recall in Quiet%
- Share of digits entered in the place they were shown on quiet lists.
- Under 0.2 or at 0.95 and above is flagged for review
- Recall with a Repeated Tone%
- Share of digits entered in the place they were shown on steady lists.
- Higher is better
- Recall with Changing Tones%
- Share of digits entered in the place they were shown on changing lists.
- Higher is better
- Digits in Place%
- Share of all digits entered in the place they were shown, over every scored list.
- Higher is better
- Recall by Place%
- Share of digits entered in their place at each place in the list, keyed from 1.
- Informational
- Lists Fully Recalledcount
- Lists with every digit entered in its place.
- Higher is better
- Median Entry Timems
- Median time from the recall screen to Submit.
- Informational; recall has no time limit
- Lists Completedtrials
- Test lists recorded in the scored run.
- Under 90% of the planned lists is invalid
- Planned Liststrials
- Test lists the session planned to give.
- Informational
- Lists Without Their Tonescount
- Lists whose tones should have played and did not; they leave the scores.
- Above 0 is flagged for review
- Reported Output Delayms
- Output delay the device reported to the browser; empty when the browser does not report it.
- Informational
Use and evidence
55 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, up 10% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 291 of 495 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 10 |
| 2024 | 16 |
| 2023 | 9 |
| 2022 | 13 |
| 2021 | 7 |
| 2020 | 7 |
| 2019 | 13 |
| 2018 | 18 |
| 2017 | 10 |
| 2016 | 2 |
| 2015 | 5 |
| 2014 | 8 |
| 2013 | 10 |
| 2012 | 13 |
| 2011 | 9 |
| 2010 | 11 |
| 2009 | 7 |
| 2008 | 8 |
| 2007 | 10 |
| 2006 | 9 |
| 2005 | 10 |
| 2004 | 14 |
| 2003 | 6 |
| 2002 | 8 |
| 2001 | 4 |
| 2000 | 6 |
Use grade D
30 to 99 papers from 2021 to 2025.
Evidence grade D
Little published measurement evidence found.
- Papers on test-retest reliability
- 0
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 5
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 0
How the grades work
Use: A is 1,000 or more papers from 2021 to 2025, B 300 to 999, C 100 to 299, D 30 to 99 and E fewer than 30. Evidence: A means at least 25 papers report its test-retest reliability and at least 25 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome; B, at least 8 test-retest papers, and either 5 registered clinical studies or 150 reliability or validity papers; C, at least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies; D, little published measurement evidence found. The counts measure use. They include every paper that names the task in its title or abstract. Grades describe the published research on this task, not ConductCognition's version of it.
Source: ConductCognition test census 0.22.0, counted 3 November 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Task design
The trial sequence as the test runs in ConductCognition.
- Sound setup
- The participant turns the device's volume until a steady 1 kHz tone is comfortable. Speakers or headphones both work, so there is no headphone check.
- Lists
- 8 digits from 1 to 9, each at most once (standard; 7 to 9 as a setting), with no run of three counting up or down by one and no list given twice in a session.
- Trial
- A fixation cross for 1,000 ms, then each digit for 800 ms with a 200 ms blank, then recall in quiet.
- Sounds
- Quiet, one tone repeated, or tones that change in pitch, from the first digit to the end of the last: 150 ms sine tones, one every 250 ms, 6 dB below the volume-setting tone, from the C major scale C4 to C5. A changing list never plays the same tone twice in a row.
- Recall
- The digits in order, typed, or tapped on a keypad of 1 to 9 on touch screens, with Delete and Submit. Untimed.
- Order
- 10 blocks (standard; 6 to 15), each one list of each kind in an order drawn from the session's seed: 30 lists, with no feedback.
- Practice
- 2 lists, one quiet and one with changing tones, each followed by the digits shown, the digits entered and how many were in place.
- Score
- The changing-state cost: the share of digits in place on steady lists minus on changing lists. Also the steady-state cost, recall on each kind of list and recall by place.
The tones are made by the browser at a level relative to the volume the participant set, not a sound pressure level, and speakers and headphones differ, so compare results within studies run the same way. Tones have disrupted recall less than speech in some studies, so the cost may be smaller than with spoken items. One person's cost is a difference between kinds of list and retests modestly, so compare groups. No percentile is given: a smaller cost is not a better memory. The scores support research and do not diagnose.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: test-phase recall entries of the scored run, one per list. A whole list in order has no meaningful chance level, so accuracy is not judged against chance; recall is untimed, so nothing can be missed. Fewer than 90% of the planned lists invalidates. A list whose tones did not play leaves the scores and flags the session. Quiet lists recalled under 20% in place, or at 95% or more, flag the session and withhold the percentile, because a cost of the sounds cannot show at the floor or the ceiling. A hidden tab withholds the percentile.
Why these rules
The changing-state effect is a difference between kinds of list, so it needs every kind to have its lists and recall away from the floor and the ceiling. Entering a list's digits in a random order puts about one of them in place, 1 in 8 at the standard length, and a span well above the list length leaves no room for the sounds to lower recall. A hidden tab lets the study, delay or response timers run without the participant, so a percentile is withheld after one.
No percentile. Scores and quality flags only.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Digits in each list | 8 | 7 to 9 |
| Lists of each kind | 10 | 6 to 15 |
Yearly plans can change settings within these limits. Free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Need a setting this test does not have?
Devices and languages
- Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. Participant devices
- Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese.
- Available on: Every plan, including the free plan.
- No percentile. Scores and quality flags only. How norms work
- Recruiting online? See the setup guides for Prolific, Sona Systems, CloudResearch Connect and Qualtrics.
Cite and describe
Participants completed the Irrelevant Sound Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Colle and Welsh, 1976; Jones and Macken, 1993), with the standard settings (digits in each list: 8; lists of each kind: 10). The main score was changing-state cost (share of digits entered in their place on steady lists minus the share on changing lists).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Colle, H. A., & Welsh, A. (1976). Acoustic masking in primary memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 15(1), 17-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-5371(76)90003-7The paradigm: serial recall of items seen on a screen while sound plays that participants ignore.
- Jones, D., Madden, C., & Miles, C. (1992). Privileged access by irrelevant speech to short-term memory: The role of changing state. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A, 44(4), 645-669. https://doi.org/10.1080/14640749208401304The changing-state effect: sound that changes disrupts recall more than one item repeated.
- Jones, D. M., & Macken, W. J. (1993). Irrelevant tones produce an irrelevant speech effect: Implications for phonological coding in working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19(2), 369-381. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.19.2.369Changing tones disrupt serial recall as syllables do.
- Elliott, E. M., Bell, R., Gorin, S., Robinson, N., & Marsh, J. E. (2022). Auditory distraction can be studied online! A direct comparison between in-person and online experimentation. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 34(3), 307-324. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2021.2021924The digit lists and their timing, the three kinds of list in sets of three, and the effect online and in the lab.
- Ellermeier, W., & Hellbrück, J. (1998). Is level irrelevant in "irrelevant speech"? Effects of loudness, signal-to-noise ratio, and binaural unmasking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24(5), 1406-1414. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.24.5.1406The same effect at a high and a low overall level.
- Elliott, E. M., & Cowan, N. (2005). Coherence of the irrelevant-sound effect: Individual profiles of short-term memory and susceptibility to task-irrelevant materials. Memory & Cognition, 33(4), 664-675. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03195333Digit lists with tones; tones disrupted recall less than speech, and difference scores had low reliability.
Source papers
- Elliott EM, Bell R, Gorin S, Robinson N, Marsh JE (2022). Auditory distraction can be studied online! A direct comparison between in-person and online experimentation. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 34(3):307-324.N 128, Adults
Questions
How long does the Irrelevant Sound Task take?
About 11 to 14 minutes, as listed in the test library.
What device does a participant need?
Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. The browser must be Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
What scores does it produce?
Changing-State Cost, Steady-State Cost, Changing Tones Against Quiet, Recall in Quiet, Recall with a Repeated Tone, Recall with Changing Tones, Digits in Place, Recall by Place, Lists Fully Recalled, Median Entry Time, Lists Completed, Planned Lists, Lists Without Their Tones and Reported Output Delay. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Irrelevant Sound Task used in research?
55 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, up 10% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 291 of 495 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade D). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.22.0, counted 3 November 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Irrelevant Sound Task have?
In the published research, 0 papers report its test-retest reliability and 0 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade D in the ConductCognition test census).
Does it report a percentile?
No. Scores and quality flags only.
Which settings can a researcher change?
Digits in each list (7 to 9) and lists of each kind (6 to 15). Settings can be changed on yearly plans; free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Which languages can participants use?
Participants can take this test in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese. English is on every plan, and the other languages come with yearly plans. Have a native speaker read the machine-translated text before launch.
Is this a clinical test?
No. ConductCognition is for research use only. It runs, scores and exports the test; clinical interpretation is outside the platform.
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