<p>I think you probably need to more clearly define what you mean by distraction - what sorts of events or objects in the world distract, and what does it mean to be distracted? - but between subjects differences in susceptibility to distraction have been noted in the literature on field dependency at least <a href="http://www.amsciepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pms.1965.20.3.805" rel="nofollow">http://www.amsciepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pms.1965.20.3.805</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-10-29T09:58:08.983Z
edited my question to state the context of my question
deemel
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-10-28T13:33:24.110Z
2012-10-28T13:33:24.110Z
Charlie
<p>I remember reading at some point in the literature that humans are unable to avoid distraction from a certain primary task if this task isn't using up close to all available 'resources' - basically meaning that everytime the human brain has cognitive resources left, they'll be allocated to one thing or another.</p>

<p>Is that right? If not, at what point is my understanding wrong?
Can you give a relevant reference concerning this question?</p>

<p>Edit:
I'm referring to distraction in the context of traffic from the perspective of the individual driver. </p>

<p>See <code>Hancock, P. A., Mouloua, M., &amp; Senders, J. W. (2009). On the philosophical foundations of the distracted driver and driving distraction.</code></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-10-26T16:12:40.570Z
I think you've got some good questions here (and your others as well).  Check into some of the available databases (Google Scholar or [PsychArticles](http://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycarticles/index.aspx) or [PubMed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/)) to see if you can narrow down your interests a bit - some articles are behind a paywall, but you can read abstracts for free normally)
Chuck Sherrington
<cognitive-psychology><reference-request><cognitive-modeling><attention>
Attention Theory: is it impossible to avoid distraction?
deemel
# Attention Theory: is it impossible to avoid distraction?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-10-26)

I remember reading at some point in the literature that humans are unable to avoid distraction from a certain primary task if this task isn't using up close to all available 'resources' - basically meaning that everytime the human brain has cognitive resources left, they'll be allocated to one thing or another.

Is that right? If not, at what point is my understanding wrong?
Can you give a relevant reference concerning this question?

Edit:
I'm referring to distraction in the context of traffic from the perspective of the individual driver.

See `Hancock, P. A., Mouloua, M., & Senders, J. W. (2009). On the philosophical foundations of the distracted driver and driving distraction.`

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology, reference-request, cognitive-modeling, attention

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I think you've got some good questions here (and your others as well).  Check into some of the available databases (Google Scholar or [PsychArticles](http://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycarticles/index.aspx) or [PubMed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/)) to see if you can narrow down your interests a bit - some articles are behind a paywall, but you can read abstracts for free normally)  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2012-10-28. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

I think you probably need to more clearly define what you mean by distraction - what sorts of events or objects in the world distract, and what does it mean to be distracted? - but between subjects differences in susceptibility to distraction have been noted in the literature on field dependency at least <http://www.amsciepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pms.1965.20.3.805>

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: edited my question to state the context of my question  

---

