Name: The Benefits of Being Easily Distracted
Uploaded: 2018-12-06T11:46:30.000Z
Duration: 5 min 49 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Psychologists have often described attention
as a spotlight you can shine on things to

And while you're focused on something, your
brain processes it preferentially, and everything

But a 2018 paper suggests that attention is
more of a strobe light — it 'pulses'

by briefly switching focus to the background
four times a second.

Put simply, humans are wired to be distractible
— and although you might lament that fact

when you're trying to buckle down and study
for an exam, it's actually a good thing

you're not always great at staying focused.

People tend to view distractibility as a bad
thing, and that makes sense.

In modern society, we place a lot of value
on productivity, and being distracted can

lower your performance on specific tasks.

I mean, just think of all the work you'd
get done if you didn't keep getting lost

in daydreams, feel the urge to check your
Twitter feed, or…

Your brain does have ways of keeping you on
task.

Most of the time, when you get distracted
by the outside world or your own thoughts,

several areas in your frontal lobe will guide
you back to what you should be doing, re-orienting

But there's a lot of built-in distractibility,
too, and that's because, from an evolutionary

Being able to focus intently to pump out a
million expense reports in a row wasn't

really something that benefited our ancestors.

Instead, checking out the surroundings all
of the time without realising it probably

made them less likely to get caught off guard
by something dangerous, like a predator, or

And being easily distracted by even tiny threats
could have meant the difference between safety

That's something scientists say can been
seen today by looking at how people with different

Anxious people are naturally predisposed to
assume a threat is near, so they're even

more easily distracted by potential dangers.

For example, a 2007 study asked 44 participants
to push a particular computer key as quickly

and accurately as they could after being prompted
by a screen.

Once they'd gotten the hang of it, they
were told that some extra words would appear

during each trial, which they were to ignore.

And everyone was pretty good at ignoring neutral
words, like 'shower', or positive ones,

I mean “shower” is a positive word in
my book.

But the participants with higher levels of
anxiety were more slowed down by negative

words that could be perceived as physical
threats, like 'murder'.

It was as if their attention was yanked from
the task in order to assess whether or not

These days, that kind of strong reaction to
perceived threats can be draining.

But in the past, a little anxiety might have
been a good thing, since the odds were a lot

higher that there really was a significant
potential threat.

And even when you're not in literal danger,
a bit of distraction can be super useful.

If you're trying to be creative, for example,
there's evidence to suggest that instead

of focusing hard on the task at hand, you
should let yourself be distracted.

Several studies have suggested that distractibility
and creativity are two sides of the same coin…

That's because the structural differences
in the brain that make a person more distractible

But a 2012 study went even further to show
that a bout of daydreaming can get the creative

juices flowing no matter how distractible
you are innately.

The researchers tested the creativity of 145
participants using a measure known as the

In it, you're asked to write down as many
uses for an object as you can within a set

time frame, and are assigned points for each
use you come up with.

Participants did a baseline Unusual Uses Test,
then either completed a mentally-demanding

task, an easy task that let their minds wander,
or simply rested.

Then, they tried the Unusual Uses Test again.

Resting by itself didn't have much of an
effect on their scores, nor did challenging

But the group that was given the easy task
crushed it.

Their scores improved by an average of about
42%.

And surveys revealed that distractions were
really what gave them the edge — they were

the only group whose mind wandered significantly
in between the two tests.

Other studies have suggested distractibility
can help you prepare for the future.

In any given moment, things happening outside
your focus might seem irrelevant.

Like, if you're trying to finish that report
you're writing, a distant beeping sound

But, the information you gather while distracted
could become incredibly important later on.

Like, when you realize that beep was your
phone alerting you to that super important

email containing all the information you need
to finish your report... or a smoke alarm

Look, I'm not trying to giving you an excuse
to goof off every five minutes here.

But being distractible isn't always a bad
thing.

So next time you find yourself daydreaming
at work or distracted by something totally

random you see or hear, maybe don't get
so mad at your brain for getting off task.

It's just trying to help you come up with
an innovative way to solve whatever problem

you're stuck on, or, you know, making sure
you don't ignore that incoming tiger.

Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow
Psych!

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