Distraction

From OptimalScience
Revision as of 14:06, 25 May 2020 by Jsanchez (talk | contribs)

Key claims

  • People with anxiety have a high motivation to change.
  • A distraction can be defined as an urge to switch tasks.
  • Distractibility is not a permanent trait.
  • Distractibility is a state of training.
  • Some people develop certain habits with less training than others.
  • There are no people who necessarily give in to distractions.
  • A distraction is an urge to switch tasks
  • When working you are using two systems of attention: task attention vs. predictive attention.
  • Task attention uses your central executive function network.
  • Predictive attention, also called default attention, uses the default mode network.
  • Task attention works in the present moment: this present step.
  • Predictive attention concerns the past or future: the next step.
  • We have deliberate and automated appraisals.
  • We also have deliberate (task) and automated (predictive) attention.
  • A distraction is when your predictive attention automatically takes you off the path you deliberately set for your task attention.
  • The pull of predictive attention is a function of the salience of the next step.
  • Salience is produced by reinforcement.
  • Mirroring anxiety, how salience is generated:
    • Giving in to distractions trains your nucleus accumbens to label things as salient.
    • The nucleus accumbens detects salience.
    • The nucleus accumbens creates the craving upon detection.
    • The nucleus accumbens watches your response.
    • Avoidance retrains the nucleus accumbens to be less triggerable: habituation.
    • While avoiding a salient trigger, the craving level will increase, peak, and decrease as long as the avoidance behavior is maintained.
    • Further approach trains your nucleus accumbens to be more triggerable: sensitization of salience.
    • Giving in to a distraction reinforces the distractor, making it more salient for the future.
  • The reinforcement of distractors involves both negative reinforcement (relief) and positive reinforcement (enjoyment of distractor).
  • The greater the reinforcement, the greater the salience generated by giving in to distractor, so the more distracting it is the next time (sensitization).