Trying too hard to focus
By Gregory Kellett, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at SFSU and science writer for Lumos Labs .
A new study indicates that focusing too much might actually diminish your ability to pay attention. The researchers, based out of Carnegie Mellon University, used a phenomenon called the attentional blink as the center of their investigation.
An attentional blink is a deficit in visual attention which often occurs 200-500 milliseconds after the first of two visual items are presented during an experiment. The study looked at the ability of participants to detect that second visual item in the presence of visual distractions (moving grey dots).
Surprisingly, the distractors enhanced the ability of people to detect items often obscured by attentional blinks.
The authors hypothesize that the attentional blink phenomenon is due to an overexertion of control happening when target detection and memory consolidation overlap.
They surmise that the adding of distractors dissipates this overexertion of control, thereby enhancing performance.
So the next time you’re playing Speed Match you may want to try day dreaming a bit…it just might improve your score.
References:
Taatgen, N. A., Juvina, I., Schipper, M., Borst, J. P., & Martens, S. (n.d.). Too much control can hurt: A threaded cognition model of the attentional blink. Cognitive Psychology, In Press, Corrected Proof.
Salvucci, D. D., & Taatgen, N. A. (2008). Threaded cognition: An integrated theory of concurrent multitasking. Psychological
Review, 115(1), 101–130.
Feb 22, 2009
In color match defocusing can make it easier/faster too. Learning to use switch on the parts of the brain that are necessary for different sorts of tasks could be central to any advanced brain training program. Which also means relaxing those parts which are not as essential. For example intense self consciousness or readiness to control probably isnt all that necessary for twiddling two fingers. Some of the main approaches to top performance seem adrenalin fueled speed/attention, repetitive training or a relaxed slightly defocused high performance state. Perhaps adrenalin fueled arousal might help with climbing the dumbbell, repetitive training with working through the dumbbell and relaxed defocused states with sliding out the other side of the dumbbell.
Mar 07, 2009
There are probably a million other variables that can affect these measures. Fatigue, malnutrition, etc… Vitamin deficiency is one of the most common reasons for slowed processing and inability to maintain performance in repetative exercises. I enjoyed the article though. I’m looking to exchange a link if anyone is interested.
Thanks,
Kevin