Distraction

Functions and Types of Distraction

Distraction plays an important function in many domains, including the workplace, warfare, religion, media, medicine, and crime. Thus, social critics investigate distraction as a form of entertainment and a delay of more pressing social transformation; theologians criticize human distraction for delaying proper engagement with God; and theorists of technology consider distraction in accounts of how technologies influence and extend human life and labor. In nonartistic domains the primary response to distraction is to decrease and exploit it. Manipulating distractions (and reducing interruptions) is important in domains in which enhancing human development, productivity, and safety are the primary goals. The potential manipulation of distractions composed of noise, sound, and/or music are continually monitored in contexts such as the consumption of urban space, driving, and the medical reduction of pain and stress, and practical interventions are frequently proposed, the effect of which is to increase human control of the situation.

Distraction also plays a major related role in many artistic domains, including fiction, magic, and music. In artistic domains distraction is managed more flexibly and loosely, with much being made of its creative potential, not simply as a generator of ideas, but as a mode of artistic engagement. From the Romantics to John Cage, distraction plays a fundamental phenomenological role in musical creativity, performance, and interpretation.

In terms of the mechanics of auditory perception, distraction is the flip side of attention. It is a function of the extent to which the way in which one auditory object is processed shares its mode of processing with that of a second object, impinging upon the auditory system, with the processing of the second object—the distraction—being unavoidable and causing a pause in the attention given to the first object. Distractions operate across the entire timbral spectrum and include events at low-volume levels, and their effect on musical attention does not disappear on repetition. Whether they are disruptive in the sense of bringing the performance or listening experience to a halt depends on contextual factors, including the similarity of the distraction to the auditory object being otherwise attended to, the intensity of the distraction, and the cognitive abilities of the listener.

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