Question: Which type of external distraction—visual, auditory, or motion-based—diverts the focus of children from ages 11-14 the most?

Hypothesis: The hypothesis states that auditory distractions will divert the focus of participants the most because external and internal sounds cannot coexist. Audio is harder to tune out because the brain is constantly driven to process/decode sound.

Note: A number of additional terms and details were refined in both the slides and our presentation speech itself.

Prefrontal Cortex

• Located at the anterior of the brain’s frontal lobe.
• Administrative “control centre.”
• Responsible for complex cognitive tasks.
• Maintains focus by coordinating with sensory areas.
• Adequate cognitive control requires attention, working memory, and goal management.

Distractions in Action

• The brain is wired to notice new and sudden stimuli.
• Distractions take away part of the attention processing space, weakening control.
• Distractions trigger an automatic attention shift.
• The loss of control is temporary while the brain evaluates the new stimulus.
• Distractions activate sensory (visual, auditory, and somatosensory cortex) and emotional (amygdala) brain regions.

Inside the Distracted Brain

• Distractions make it harder to stay focused, add stress, and decrease performance quality and cognitive function.
• Negative/emotional distractions linger in memory and disrupt focus largely.
• Positive distractions are less detrimental and sometimes improve focus, even controlling emotional control centres.

Internal vs. External

• Internal distractions are from within the body and can be mental, emotional, or physical.
• External distractions come from the environment and can be auditory, visual, or motion-based.
• Internal and external distractions go hand in hand.
• Distractibility varies with individual internal reactivity and external sensory sensitivity levels.

Effects on Working Memory

• The presence of distracting elements consumes attention that is needed to process information, leading to increased errors, slower reaction times, and worse performances, especially in tasks requiring a working memory.
• Diversions create a mental bias in memory, slightly leaning towards the distractions' qualities instead of the factual ones.

Why Distractibility Differs

• Genetic and neural differences.
• Individual working memory capacity.
• Internal emotional reactivity and external sensory sensitivity.
• Trait differences like attentional control and impulsivity.
• Changes in attention and cognitive control across age.
• Neurodivergent conditions like ADHD, autism, and dyslexia.

Effects on Performance

• Distractions increase reaction time by diverting cognitive resources, making it harder to respond to separate stimuli.
• Interruptions reduce productivity and accuracy.
• Distractions impair memory, alter neural pathways in the brain, and increase anxiety levels.
• It takes a very long time to recover from a distraction and regain focus.

Power over provocation

• Immunity over distractions is not possible because the brain is wired to notice changes in the environment.
• Distractions can be limited environment factor control (sound levels, seating styles, time management, etc.)
• A longer attention span significantly affects focus durability.

Controlled

• Stimulus
• Environment
• Task given
• Age range
• Instructions
• Materials used
• Order
• Number of tasks

Manipulative Type of distraction Responding Participant time taken within each type of distraction.

1. Complete the task (math sheet) while distraction-free.
2. Complete the second task (similar math sheet) with a visual distraction (flashing lights).  
3. Repeat the third task (similar math sheet) with an auditory distraction (audio and chatter).
4. Complete the fourth task (similar math sheet) during motion-based distraction (pacing and throwing).
5. Results will be compared and compiled.

• Some participants requested an end to the distraction.
• Participants had a period of stasis at the beginning of each task.
• Some participants were visibly frustrated at the auditory and visual sections.
• Motion-based distractions derived focus for very short periods of time.
• Older participants showed fewer signs of distraction.

The results showed that participants took the longest amount of time during the auditory distraction, meaning loud environments interfered with focus the most. The visual distraction portion produced the average with the shortest times, and motion‑based distractions caused the least visible struggle overall, with participants staying focused more easily. These patterns show that auditory interference creates the strongest disruption to attention, while visual and motion distractions have a smaller impact.

• The hypothesis was correct; participants took the longest amount of time when working in loud environments.
• Majority of participants struggled the least to stay focused during motion-based distractions.
• Majority of participants took the least amount of time during the visual distraction portion

• Designing better learning environments.
• Focusing on minimizing auditory distractions (background noise, music for some, etc.) over others.
• Support for a student’s individual retaining needs and distractibility levels.

• Tasks may have had differences in difficulty level, leading to inaccuracy. This was shown in the results.
• Only one test of each distraction- multiple rounds of each distraction may have given better accuracy in the results.
• For each genre of distraction, there was only one distraction. exploring multiple distractions under each genre may improve the accuracy of the results.
• Only external distractions were tested
• Students should have been surveyed along with their tests for additional information

• slidesgo.com [slides template] 
• brainbalancecenters.com [science behind distractions and improving focus]
• The National Library of Medicine [neural bases behind distraction and reappraisal] 
• drcognitivehealth.com [why we get distracted and how to focus]
• medium.com [the neuroscience of focus] 
• The National Library of Medicine [the effects of ongoing distraction on the neural processes]
• drpatrickkeelan.com [internal vs. external distractions]
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7088125/#:~:text=Regarding%20distractions%2C%20previous%20research%20has,processing%20of%20the%20distracting%20stimuli. 
• https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/minds-business/even-small-distractions-derail-productivity.html 
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-18699-z 
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001457525002404 
• https://restoreyourhealth.ca/are-distractions-reducing-your-productivity/ 

We would like to extend a sincere thank-you to the Calgary Youth Science Fair coordination team for providing us with the valuable opportunity to participate in this year's fair. We are grateful to our science teacher and science fair coordinator Mr. Adham, for offering guidance, providing us with spaces and testing accommodations, and supporting us in our editing process. We also thank our parents for assisting with technological aspects of our projects like organizing our data in graph forms while encouraging us to keep going. Finally, we appreciate our school and all participants for contributing to a smooth experience.