Distraction (Psychology)

In everyday life, we come across visual distractors such as crossing the street or driving down the highway, but what properties of distractors determine whether they will affect cognitive processing? Relatively little is known about how the strength of a distractor or changing it over time affects the ability to deploy attention. Previous studies have shown that suprathreshold stimuli interfere more in the Simon Effect than near threshold stimuli. However, it is unknown whether this effect is due simply to motor inhibition or generalizes to tasks without a motor component. To test the generalizability of this effect, an attentional blink task was presented in which a coherent motion stimulus surrounded a rapid serial visual presentation stream. The study demonstrated that the highest coherence condition presented first had the greatest effect on performance accuracy. This is suggestive of a diffused attentional state.