Comments on: Cognitive Obstacles: Why Distractions Can Improve Creativity and Problem-Solving

By: nathan

nathan — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:02:46 +0000

You do realize that no where in the Frederick’s paper does the word “font” appear, as in “small font in washed-out gray print”. see: http://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/psych466/articles/Frederick_CRT_2005.pdf

By: sammcnerney

sammcnerney — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:03:17 +0000

Thanks for your comment Patrick!

By: Patrick Wm Connally

Patrick Wm Connally — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:35:27 +0000

I hope no one shows this to teenagers doing homework without headphones, not really, if they had shown me this they could play those songs, they did research. I have also known a couple of people with significant head injuries who needed background noise to think/focus when I was doing advocacy work.

Some blogers get upset if you thank people, but thank you for the wonderful articles.

By: Busy Signals

Busy Signals — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:05:58 +0000

There’s a comment David Allen makes in one of his books that I’ve always found instructive: “We don’t mind the constraints that really work for us,” and he goes on to cite things like lines down the highway that guide traffic. They limit our behavior, but allow us to relax and enjoy driving, and get more safely and quickly to our destination.

I think we will see more research like this, and hopefully more helpful applications of it. Human cognition is powerful, but limited; the best way to exploit that power, I think, is to impose constraints that keep us from having to decide, juggle, or do too many competing things at once.

By: sammcnerney

sammcnerney — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 01:32:50 +0000

Rk,

In regard to Frederick’s research, the problems were not made more difficult – they were the same in every case. The differences were in the visual clarity.

And yes, I feel like constantly checking social networks is really harmful to my brain!

By: Rk

Rk — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:41:32 +0000

Interesting researches! But does making the problem more difficult equal to distraction? To my experience difficult problems make more concentrated. However constantly switching among facebooking, chatting, checking email or working make my mind shallow. It also takes time for my mind to adjust from one thing to another.