Effects Of Distraction Research Articles

The Effect of Virtual Reality and Hugo Point Massage on the Pain and Anxiety of School-aged Children with Cancer: Crossover Clinical Trial

Background: Venipuncture and peripheral intravenous cannulation are two of the most common invasive procedures in children that generate pain and distress. Previous studies have confirmed the effect of distraction and acupressure on reducing pain and anxiety in children; however, the effectiveness of these two methods has not been compared. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare Virtual Reality and Hugo point massage on the pain and anxiety of children. Methods: This crossover study was conducted in the oncology unit of a children’s hospital. Participants included 30 children aged 6-12 with cancer who were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: (routine, Virtual Reality, and acupressure). All children experienced these three methods. The scores of children’s pain (VAS scale) and anxiety (FAS scale) were measured. Finding: The result showed that the Virtual Reality method significantly reduced pain and anxiety compared to Hugo’s point method (P <0.001). Implications for Nursing: According to the present study, non-pharmacological methods such as Hugo point massage and virtual reality were effective in reducing pain and anxiety in school-aged children. Therefore, nursing managers can encourage nurses to use these methods based on the child's preferences to relieve the pain by providing the necessary facilities and equipment. Furthermore, they can increase nurses' knowledge by introducing new pain management methods in children through workshops. Conclusion: The present study showed that VR and Hugo’s point massage were effective ways to reduce pain and anxiety resulting from intravenous cannulation in school-age children.

Can a Simple Distraction Lower Fear Levels During a Sudden Scary Outdoor Situation?

Adventure-based teaching can foster social and personal growth yet can scare and cause long-lasting anxiety in some group members. This study examined the effects of a simple distraction to lower stress levels during an approaching scary event. Forty-eight males (M = 20.2 years) were randomly assigned to one of four groups. The stressor involved participants walking on a 3-m tower while blindfolded and jumping off into a pool. Self-report questionnaires, digital counters, heart rate, and peripheral temperature measures were used. A two-way analysis of variance indicated no significant difference in trait and state anxiety/ sensation seeking. However, a post hoc Scheffé’s test found significant changes in heart rate between the experimental groups and the control groups. Though not statistically different, the study’s results suggest that distractions affect heart rate, peripheral temperature, and state anxiety/sensation seeking, with raw scores rising (5% and 18%, respectively, for the latter). Future studies should consider other distraction-type strategies in which stress levels may hamper safety during group adventure activities.

Impact of aversive affect on neural mechanisms of categorization decisions.

Many theories contend that evidence accumulation is a critical component of decision-making. Cognitive accumulation models typically interpret two main parameters: a drift rate and decision threshold. The former is the rate of accumulation, based on the quality of evidence, and the latter is the amount of evidence required for a decision. Some studies have found neural signals that mimic evidence accumulators and can be described by the two parameters. However, few studies have related these neural parameters to experimental manipulations of sensory data or memory representations. Here, we investigated the influence of affective salience on neural accumulation parameters. High affective salience has been repeatedly shown to influence decision-making, yet its effect on neural evidence accumulation has been unexamined. The current study used a two-choice object categorization task of body images (feet or hands). Half the images in each category were high in affective salience because they contained highly aversive features (gore and mutilation). To study such quick categorization decisions with a relatively slow technique like functional magnetic resonance imaging, we used a gradual reveal paradigm to lengthen cognitive processing time through the gradual "unmasking" of stimuli. Because the aversive features were task-irrelevant, high affective salience produced a distractor effect, slowing decision time. In visual accumulation regions of interest, high affective salience produced a longer time to peak activation. Unexpectedly, the later peak appeared to be the product of changes to both drift rate and decision threshold. The drift rate for high affective salience was shallower, and the decision threshold was greater. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an experimental manipulation of sensory data or memory representations that changed the neural decision threshold. These findings advance our knowledge of the neural mechanisms underlying affective responses in general and the influence of high affective salience on object representations and categorization decisions.

The use of virtual reality during extra-amniotic balloon insertion for pain and anxiety relief—a randomized controlled trial

Background: Induction of labor with extra-amniotic balloon (EAB) catheter is a procedure commonly associated with maternal discomfort, pain, and anxiety. Objective(s): We aimed to investigate the distractive effect of virtual reality (VR) technology on pain and anxiety- in pregnant patients who undergo Induction of labor with EAB.Study design: In this randomized controlled trial, pregnant patients intended for Induction of labor with EAB at term, for various obstetric indications, were recruited and randomized in a 1:1 ratio into two groups. Patients in the VR group were exposed to a VR technology clip (using SootheVR All-In-One VR care system for pain and anxiety) during the entire EAB insertion while patients in the control group received the institutional standard care for EAB insertion. Pain scores expressed by Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and maternal hemodynamic parameters, were obtained before, during, and after EAB insertion. Anxiety was evaluated by the validated State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Scale (STAI-S) before and after the procedure. Maternal satisfaction from the VR technology was also recorded. The primary outcome was the change in VAS score before and during EAB insertion. Among the secondary outcomes was the change in Anxiety levels before and after EAB insertion. The study was powered to detect a 25% decrease in the primary outcome.Results: A total of 132 pregnant patients were recruited (66 in each group). There were no differences between groups in terms of age, BMI, gestational age at enrollment, indication for Induction of labor, and pre-procedural VAS score and anxiety levels. The change in VAS score (maximal VAS score during the procedure subtract the initial VAS score before the procedure, i.e the primary outcome) was significantly lower in the VR group compared to the control group (2.78±3.0 vs 4.09±2.99, p=0.01). In addition, the VR group benefited a higher rate of anxiety relief expressed by the difference between pre-procedure and post-procedure STAI score, (-6.46 ± 9.6 vs -2.01 ± 9.11, P=0.007). Patients in the VR group reported an overall very high (94%) satisfaction score.Conclusions: In this randomized controlled trial, we demonstrated that the use of VR technology in patients undergoing Induction of labor with EAB was associated with lower VAS scores during the procedure and significant anxiety reduction compared to patients who received standard care. There was also a very high satisfaction rate from the use of VR technology.

Disrupted interoceptive awareness by auditory distractor: Difficulty inferring the internal bodily states?

Recent studies have associated interoceptive awareness, the perception of internal bodily sensations, with a predictive mechanism of perception across all sensory modalities. According to the framework, volitional attention plays a pivotal role in interoceptive awareness by prioritizing interoceptive sensations over exteroceptive ones. Consequently, it is hypothesized that the presence of irrelevant stimuli would disrupt the attentional modulation and interoceptive awareness, which remains untested. In this study, we investigated if interoceptive awareness is diminished by unrelated auditory distractors to validate the proposed perceptual framework. A total of 30 healthy human volunteers performed the heartbeat counting task both with and without auditory distractors. Additionally, we measured participant’s psychophysiological traits related to interoception, including the high-frequency component of heart rate variability (HF-HRV) and trait interoceptive sensibility. The results showed that interoceptive accuracy, confidence, and heartbeat intensity decreased in the presence of distractor sound. Moreover, individuals with higher HF-HRV and a greater tendency to worry about bodily states experienced a more pronounced distractor effect on interoceptive awareness. These results provide support for the perceptual mechanism of interoceptive awareness in terms of the predictive process, highlighting the impact of relative precision across interoceptive and exteroceptive signals on perceptual experiences.

Evidence of a metacognitive illusion in judgments about the effects of music on cognitive performance

Two experiments serve to examine how people make metacognitive judgments about the effects of task-irrelevant sounds on cognitive performance. According to the direct-access account, people have direct access to the processes causing auditory distraction. According to the processing-fluency account, people rely on the feeling of processing fluency to make heuristic metacognitive judgments about the distracting effects of sounds. To manipulate the processing fluency of simple piano melodies and segments of Mozart’s sonata K. 448, the audio files of the music were either left in their original forward direction or reversed. The results favor the processing-fluency account over the direct-access account: Even though, objectively, forward and backward music had the same distracting effect on serial recall, stimulus-specific prospective metacognitive judgments showed that participants incorrectly predicted only backward music but not forward music to be distracting. The difference between forward and backward music was reduced but not eliminated in global retrospective metacognitive judgments that participants provided after having experienced the distracting effect of the music first-hand. The results thus provide evidence of a metacognitive illusion in people’s judgments about the effects of music on cognitive performance.

Testing the effects of gaze distractors with invariant spatial direction on attention cueing.

In four experiments, we tested the boundary conditions of gaze cueing with reference to the resistance to suppression criterion of automaticity. Participants were asked to respond to peripheral targets preceded by a central gaze stimulus. Under one condition, gaze direction was random and uninformative with respect to target location (intermixed condition), as in the typical paradigm. Under another condition, gaze direction was uninformative and, crucially, it was also kept constant throughout the sequence of trials (blocked condition). In so doing, we aimed at maximally reducing the informative value of the gaze stimulus because gaze would not only be task-irrelevant but would also provide no sudden and unpredictable information. Across the four experiments, the results showed a strong gaze-cueing effect. More specifically, a comparable gaze cueing emerged under the blocked and intermixed conditions. These findings are consistent with the idea that gaze cueing is resistant to suppression and are discussed in relation to current views of the automaticity of gaze cueing.

The efficacy of audiovisual distraction as an anxiety-minimizing technique during echocardiography in preschool children

Background Echocardiography procedures can cause fear and anxiety in children, especially at preschool age. Audiovisual distraction is a simple, harmless, and low-cost technique that does not interfere with the procedure.
 Objective To assess the effect of audiovisual distraction on the anxiety levels of children aged 2-5 years during echocardiography.
 Methods This quasi-experimental study included children aged 2-5 years who were admitted for echocardiography. Patients with hearing or visual impairment, Down syndrome, autism, or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder were excluded. We administered anxiety-reducing intervention in the form of cartoon audiovisual media shown on a ceiling-mounted television during the echocardiography procedure. Anxiety levels were assessed using the Visual Analogue Scale - Anxiety (VAS-A) before and after the intervention was given. We compared the subjects’ pre- and post-procedure VAS-A scores and heart rates.
 Results Of the 43 subjects who underwent echocardiography during the study period, the mean age was 3.2 (SD 0.9) years, with an equal sex distribution. Most subjects had a history of repeated echocardiography procedures and hospitalizations. Thirty-nine (90.6%) of subjects demonstrated anxiety during the echocardiography procedure. There was a significant mean difference of 11.9 (SD 13.2) bpm (95%CI 7.8 to 15.9 bpm, p<0.001) in heart rate pre- vs. post-intervention. Median pre- and post-intervention VAS-A scores were 5 (range 0-10) and 1 (range 0-4), respectively (P=0.001). Post-intervention, almost all (97.7%) subjects had no or mild anxiety.
 Conclusion Audiovisual content presented on television serves as an effective distraction method to reduce children's anxiety during echocardiography.

An examination of worry and self-distancing as coping strategies for anxiety-provoking experiences in individuals high in worry

ABSTRACT Objectives This preliminary online study investigated the short-term effects of self-distancing, worry, and distraction on anxiety and worry-related appraisals among individuals high in worry. Design and Methods N = 104 community members high in trait worry were randomly assigned to think about a personally identified worry-provoking situation using self-distancing (SC), worry (WC), or distraction (DC). Participants rated their anxiety (Visual Analogue Scale for Anxiety) and appraisals of the situation (Perceived Probability, Coping, and Cost Questions) at post-task and one-day follow-up. Results Mixed factorial ANOVAs revealed an increase in anxiety within the WC (d = .475) and no difference in anxiety within the SC (d = .010) from pre- to post-task. There was no difference in anxiety within the DC (p = .177). Participants within the SC reported a decrease in the perceived cost associated with their identified situation from pre- to post-task (d = .424), which was maintained at one-day follow-up (d = .034). Participants reported an increase in perceived ability to cope from post-task to one-day follow-up (d = .236), and from pre-task to one-day follow-up (d = .338), regardless of condition. Conclusions Self-distancing may prevent increases in anxiety and catastrophizing while reflecting on a feared situation.

Environmental Effects of Driver Distraction at Traffic Lights: Mobile Phone Use

The transportation demands of people are increasing day by day depending on the population, and the number of vehicles in traffic is causing various problems. To meet the energy needs of vehicles, there is a huge burden on countries in terms of fossil fuels. In addition, the use of fossil fuels in vehicles has a serious impact on environmental pollution. Various studies have been carried out to prevent unnecessary fuel consumption and emissions. Behavior of drivers, who are important components of traffic, are carefully examined in the context of this subject. Driver distraction causes various environmental problems as well as traffic safety issues. In this study, the negative situations that arise as a result of drivers waiting at traffic lights dealing with their mobile phones are discussed. Roadside observations are made for drivers at considered intersections in Erzurum Province, Turkey. As a result of these observations, delays at selected intersections due to mobile phone use are calculated. Unnecessary fuel consumption and emissions due to delays are also analyzed. An annual fuel consumption of approximately 177.025 L and emissions of 0.294 (kg) NOX and 251.68 (kg) CO2 occur at only selected intersections. In addition, a second roadside observation is made in order to analyze driver behavior and the most preferred type of mobile phone usage is determined. It is seen that drivers mostly exhibit the “Talking” and “Touchscreen” action classes. Considering the economic conditions and environmental pollution sensitivities of countries, attempts have been made to raise awareness about fuel consumption and emissions at traffic lights.

Effect of audio and virtual reality distraction on the dental anxiety of children with mild intellectual disability.

Intellectual disability, is a neurodevelopmental disorder that typically manifests early in childhood and consists of both intellectual and adaptive functioning deficits in conceptual, social, and practical domains. It can be categorized into mild, moderate, severe, and profound based on its severity. Cognitive impairment may be observed predominantly in children with intellectual disabilities. Marked deficits in areas of learning, planning, communication, social participation, and personal independence in children with mild intellectual disabilities make behavior guidance and communication a challenge during dental treatments. The aim was to evaluate and compare the use of two different distraction tools, audio, and virtual reality (VR) on the dental anxiety of children with mild intellectual disability during dental treatment. Twenty children diagnosed with mild intellectual disability were equally divided into two groups. A cross-over study design consisting of two appointments 1 month apart was employed. In the first appointment, audio and VR distractions were provided to participants in Groups 1 and 2, respectively, and the distraction tools provided to the participants were interchanged in the second appointment. A trained observer recorded physiological parameters (pulse rate and oxygen saturation) and observational parameters (Venham's anxiety rating scale) during both appointments at three-time intervals. Statistical intra-group and inter-group comparison analyses were performed using Friedman's and Mann-Whitney U tests. A decrease in pulse, increase in oxygen saturation levels, and a decrease in Venham's Anxiety Rating Scores (statistically significant p<.05 / highly significant p<.01) was observed on introducing the distraction techniques in Groups 1 and 2 in both appointments. A statistically non-significant difference (p>.05) in physiological and observational parameters was observed between Groups 1 and 2 in both appointments. Audio and VR distraction techniques can be employed for behavior guidance in children with mild intellectual disability during restorative dental procedures.

Model test study on treatment of Pruzansky type ⅡB and Ⅲ hemifacial microsomia with artificial condyle-mandibular distractor complex

To preliminarily verify the effectiveness of self-designed artificial condyle-mandibular distraction (AC-MD) complex in the treatment of Pruzansky type ⅡB and Ⅲ hemifacial microsomia (HFM) through model test. Five children with Pruzansky type ⅡB and Ⅲ HFM who were treated with mandibular distraction osteogenesis (MDO) between December 2016 and December 2021 were selected as the subjects. There were 3 boys and 2 girls wih an average age of 8.4 years (range, 6-10 years). Virtual surgery and model test of AC-MD complex were performed according to preoperative skull CT of children. The model was obtained by three-dimensional (3D) printing according to the children's CT data at a ratio of 1∶1. The occlusal guide plate was designed and 3D printed according to the children's toothpaste model. The results of the model test and the virtual surgery were matched in three dimensions to calculate the error of the residual condyle on the affected side, and the model test was matched with the actual skull CT after MDO to measure and compare the inclination rotation of the mandible, the distance between the condylar of the healthy side and the residual condyle of the affected side, and the lengthening length of the mandible. The error of residual condyle was (1.07±0.78) mm. The inclination rotation of the mandible, the distance between the condylar of the healthy side and the residual condyle of the affected side, and the lengthening length of the mandible after 3D printing model test were significantly larger than those after MDO ( P<0.05). In the model test, the implantation of AC-MD complex can immediately rotate the mandible to the horizontal position and improve facial symmetry, and the residual condyle segment can be guided close to the articular fossa or the preset pseudoarticular position of the skull base after operation.

Body and mind: Decoding the dynamics of pedestrians and the effect of smartphone distraction by coupling mechanical and decisional processes

Pedestrians are able to anticipate, which gives them an edge in avoiding collisions and navigating in cluttered spaces. However, these capabilities are impaired by digital distraction through smartphones, a growing safety concern. To capture these features, we put forward a continuous agent-based model (dubbed ANDA) hinging on a transparent delineation of a decision-making process, wherein a desired velocity is selected as the optimum of a perceived cost, and a mechanical layer that handles contacts and collisions. Altogether, the model includes less than a dozen parameters, many of which are fit using independent experimental data. The versatility of ANDA is demonstrated by numerical simulations that successfully replicate empirical observations in a very wide range of scenarios. These scenarios vary from collision avoidance involving one, two, or more agents, to collective flow properties in unidirectional and bidirectional settings, and to the dynamics of evacuation through a bottleneck, where contact forces are directly accessible. Remarkably, the model is able to replicate the enhanced chaoticity of the flow observed experimentally in ’smartphone-walking’ pedestrians, by reducing the frequency of decisional updates, replicating the digital distraction effect. The conceptual transparency of the model makes it easy to pinpoint the origin of its current limitations and to clarify the singular position of pedestrian crowds amid active-matter systems.

Effectiveness of animation distraction on pain response among preschool children during venipuncture in selected hospitals at Bagalkot

Background: Today’s society is complex and ever changing children need to grow and learn many things. Children are vulnerable to different forms of illness, hospitalization is one of the stressful event in child life . Venepuncture is an invasive procedure in hospital settings. Which may produce pain, anxiety, and discomfort in children. The animation destraction is one of the effective method which helps to reduce the pain stimuli. Objectives: To assess the pain perceived by the pre school children during venipuncture in both experimental and control group. Methods : A Quasi experimental study with sample of considered of 60 pre school children (30 sample in the control group ,30 sample in experimental group) selected by inclusion or exclusion of samples from the target population. FLACC SCALE was used to assess the pain level. The data was entered in the MS excel sheet and transffered to SPSS 18 for analysis . Result : The mean value of experimental group of pain score during venipuncture 2.8± 1.03 and control group pain score during venipuncture7.9±0.71.The mean pain score between the control group and experimental group 5.1,P&lt;0.001. Conclusion : Mean score of control group is greater than mean score of experimental group. This study found that animation distraction is one of the effective nursing intervention in reducing the pain level among pre school children during venipuncture .

The effects of distraction on younger drivers: A neurophysiological perspective

Distracted driving remains a significant cause of traffic accidents globally, including in Australia. However, many younger drivers still admit to using a phone while driving. A simulated driving study investigated the neurophysiological effects of visual, auditory, and higher-order cognitive (i.e., requiring the use of executive functions) distraction on young drivers. In total, 24 young adults aged 18–25 years completed four 8 min simulated driving sessions while concurrently engaging in various distractor tasks. Neurophysiological arousal was measured via EEG. Additionally, subjective workload and objective driving performance were assessed. Frontal beta and gamma power exhibited their highest levels during tasks involving higher-order cognitive and visual demands. The higher-order cognitive condition was rated as the most mentally demanding. In comparison, the visual condition had the most significant impact on both the standard deviation of speed and standard deviation of lateral positioning. This study has significant implications for all road users, particularly those aged 18–25 years, and it reinforces the importance of not using a phone while driving.

The effects of visual distractors on serial dependence.

Attractive serial dependence occurs when perceptual decisions are attracted toward previous stimuli. This effect is mediated by spatial attention and is most likely to occur when similar stimuli are attended at nearby locations. Attention, however, also involves the suppression of distracting information and of spatial locations where distracting stimuli have frequently appeared. Although distractors form an integral part of our visual experience, how they affect the processing of subsequent stimuli is unknown. Here, in two experiments, we tested serial dependence from distractor stimuli during an orientation adjustment task. We interleaved adjustment trials with a discrimination task requiring observers to ignore a peripheral distractor randomly appearing on half of the trials. Distractors were either similar to the adjustment probe (Experiment 1) or differed in spatial frequency and contrast (Experiment 2) and were shown at predictable or random locations in separate blocks. The results showed that the distractor caused considerable attentional capture in the discrimination task, with observers likely using proactive strategies to anticipate distractors at predictable locations. However, there was no evidence that the distractors affected the perceptual stream leading to positive serial dependence. Instead, they left a weak repulsive trace in Experiment 1 and more generally interfered with the effect of the previous adjustment probe in the serial dependence task. We suggest that this repulsive bias may reflect the operation of mechanisms involved in attentional suppression.

Rage at Strangers: Anger Elicitation and Regulation as a Function of Relationship Type

Abstract Anger can be the most socially debilitating of the basic emotions, and effective and simple techniques for managing anger are much needed. Autobiographical recall is a powerful method for emotion elicitation, with obvious clinical utility. However, the content of the material elicited, most notably the variable of relationship type, has not been systematically studied. The present study investigated the effectiveness of the Affective Story Recall task for anger elicitation, using 5 relationship categories (family, partner, friend, stranger, abstract) and the effectiveness of 2 emotion regulation (ER) techniques: reappraisal and distraction. Fifty-two neurologically healthy adults completed a series of anger elicitation and regulation tasks, several measures of cognitive ability, and questionnaires on attachment styles and the use of ER techniques. Most relationship categories selectively elicited anger, with some categories (e.g., stranger) eliciting especially high levels. Both reappraisal and distraction reduced anger intensity across all relationship categories. However, distraction was particularly effective for strangers. Distraction effectiveness was predicted by the regular use of this ER technique, attachment style, and age, but cognitive factors played no significant role. These findings have implications for rehabilitation, allowing clinicians to tailor interventions to patients’ strengths and weaknesses.

Proximal Tibial Cortex Transverse Distraction Facilitating Healing and Limb Salvage in Severe and Recalcitrant Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Category: Diabetes; Diabetes Introduction/Purpose: The management of severe and recalcitrant diabetic foot ulcers is challenging. Distraction osteogenesis is accompanied by vascularization and regeneration of the surrounding tissues. The longitudinal distraction of the proximal tibia stimulates increased and prolonged blood flow to the distal tibia. However, the effects of the transverse distraction of the proximal tibia cortex on severe and recalcitrant diabetic foot ulcers are largely unknown. Methods: Between July 2014 and March 2017, we treated 136 patients with diabetes and severe ulcers (University of Texas Grade 2B to 3D) that had not responded to treatment for at least 6 months. and their ulcers had a mean ± SD area of 44 cm2 ± 10 cm2. All 136 patients underwent tibial cortex transverse distraction. We compared these patients with the last 136 consecutive patients we treated with standard surgical treatment between May 2011 and June 2013; All patients received standard off-loading and wound care. We compared the groups with respect to ulcer healing (complete epithelialization without discharge, maintained for at least 2 weeks) in a 2-year follow-up, the proportion of ulcers that healed by 6 months, major amputation, recurrence, and complications in the 2-year follow-up. Foot arterial status and perfusion were assessed in the TCTD group using CT angiography and perfusion imaging. Results: The tibial cortex transverse distraction group had a higher proportion of ulcers that healed in the 2-year follow-up than the control group (96% versus 68% ; p &lt; 0.001). By 6 months, a higher proportion of ulcers healed in the TCTD group than in the control group (93% versus 41% ; p &lt; 0.001). Lower proportions of patients in the TCTD group underwent major amputation (2.9% versus 23%; p &lt; 0.001) or had recurrences 2.9% versus 17%, OR 0.20 [95% CI 0.05 to 0.45]; p &lt; 0.001) than the control group in 2-year follow-up. In the feet of the patients in the TCTD group, there was a higher density of small vessels and higher blood flow and blood volume 12 weeks postoperatively than preoperatively. Conclusion: Proximal tibial cortex transverse distraction substantially facilitated healing and limb salvage and decreased the recurrence of severe and recalcitrant diabetic foot ulcers. The surgical techniques were relatively straightforward although the treatment was unorthodox, and the complications were few and minor. These findings suggest that tibial cortex transverse distraction is an effective procedure to treat severe and recalcitrant diabetic foot ulcers compared with standard surgical therapy. Randomized controlled trials are required to confirm these findings.

Neglect dyslexia: whole-word and within-word errors with parafoveal and foveal viewing

Patients with left-sided neglect dyslexia often omit whole words positioned on the left, termed whole-word errors, or commit errors on the left-sided letters of words, termed unilateral paralexias. In addition, the errors have been shown to be exacerbated by simultaneously presented distractors, which has been interpreted as a failure of selective attention. In two experiments, we examined the dependency of these error types on parafoveal versus foveal viewing. The first experiment used a paradigm with parafoveal targets and distractors; the second a paradigm with foveal targets and parafoveal distractors. This enabled a separate evaluation of the influences of stimulus position within an egocentric frame, a two-word allocentric frame, and a within-word allocentric frame. First, regarding whole-word errors, we found the expected spatial and distractor effects with parafoveal targets and distractors. With foveal targets and parafoveal distractors, however, the spatial effect was effectively eliminated. Surprisingly, intrusions from the distractor word were common in distractor conditions. This is consistent with an egocentric account and not a two-word allocentric account. Second, we found that unilateral paralexias remained largely consistent regardless of spatial position or the presence of a distractor. Thus, there is a contrast in spatial and distractor effects between whole-word errors and unilateral paralexias. These results are consistent with three distinct deficits: an egocentric deficit across space resulting in whole-word errors, a failure of selective attention that results in whole-word intrusion errors, and a within-word allocentric deficit resulting in unilateral paralexias.

The effect of motivational and instructional self-talk on attentional control under noise distraction.

Inhibition is the key factor of attentional control (AC). Basketball players are typically exposed to noise from the audience or opposing teams while competing. These distractions disrupt the attentional systems, ultimately compromise the athletes' inhibition ability and directly affect their performance on the court. Hence, effective AC strategies are crucial. Two studies were demonstrated to investigate the effects of noise distractions on attentional control and the moderating effect of self-talk. In Study 1, 36 participants undertook the Stroop task, showing an increased error rate with noise distraction. Thirty-nine national second-level basketball players participated in Study 2, where they engaged in the Antisaccade task under both quiet and noise-distraction conditions, employing different self-talk strategies. Results showed that instructional self-talk reduced the antisaccade error rate in quiet conditions, while motivational self-talk increased the error rate under noise distractions. These findings suggests that noise distraction reduces AC. In competition scenarios, basketball players are required to appropriately implement self-talk strategies to improve AC and prevent potential counterproductive effects.