Distraction by a stimulus
of one modality can affect performance in a task of
another. For example, the presence of a continuous white
noise impaired the ability of Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus)
to perform a visual discrimination task (Maes and de
Groot, 2003), showing that while they had focused their
attention upon stimuli in their visual field, an irrelevant
stimulus from another modality was capable of drawing
attention away from the visual discrimination task.