Person juggling glowing orbs while walking on a path, representing divided attention and motor skill learning.

Attention Overload? How Divided Focus Impacts Your Motor Skills

Kai Mendoza in Mind & Education August 2025 • 4 min read.

"Discover the surprising link between divided attention and motor skill learning, and how mastering focus can enhance your performance."

In today's fast-paced world, multitasking has become the norm. We juggle multiple tasks simultaneously, often dividing our attention between work, family, and personal pursuits. But how does this constant division of attention affect our ability to learn and master new skills, especially those involving physical movements? Recent research sheds light on this intriguing question, revealing a complex relationship between attention and motor skill learning.

Motor skills, ranging from playing a musical instrument to mastering a new sport, require practice and repetition. Traditionally, it was believed that focused attention was essential for effective learning. However, emerging evidence suggests that dividing our attention can sometimes enhance motor skill acquisition. This counterintuitive effect has sparked interest in understanding how different attentional states impact the learning process.

A groundbreaking study published in the Journal of Vision delves into the encoding of attentional states during visuomotor adaptation. Visuomotor adaptation refers to the ability to adjust movements based on visual feedback, a critical component of many motor skills. The study's findings challenge conventional wisdom, revealing that attentional state, whether divided or undivided, plays a crucial role in how we learn and recall motor skills. The preasymptote period of visuomotor adaptation is the critical temporal window.

The Paradox of Divided Attention: Can Distraction Improve Learning?

Person juggling glowing orbs while walking on a path, representing divided attention and motor skill learning.

The study's authors, Hee Yeon Im, Patrick Bédard, and Joo-Hyun Song, explored how different attentional states affect the learning and recall of visuomotor skills. They discovered a paradoxical effect: visuomotor adaptation acquired under attentional distraction is better recalled under similar distraction levels compared to when there is no distraction. This suggests that the attentional state itself is encoded as an internal context during learning, influencing how we later retrieve and apply the skill.

To investigate this phenomenon, the researchers conducted experiments where participants performed a visuomotor adaptation task while manipulating their attentional state. Participants were required to reach toward visual targets while a cursor, controlled by a stylus, was rotated 45 degrees counterclockwise. This created a mismatch between their hand movements and the visual feedback, requiring them to adapt their motor commands. The experiment was designed using a dual-task paradigm combining a visuomotor adaptation task and an RSVP task as in the previous studies.

Early vs. Late Learning Phases: Participants performed a secondary attention-demanding task (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, or RSVP) concurrently during either the early or late phase of visuomotor learning.
Recall Performance: The researchers then tested how well participants recalled the adapted motor skill under different attentional conditions.
Attentional State Consistency: The key manipulation was whether the attentional state during recall matched the attentional state during the early or late phase of learning.

The findings revealed that recall performance was enhanced when the attentional states between recall and the early phase of visuomotor learning were consistent. In other words, if participants learned the skill while distracted, they recalled it better when distracted again. However, if tested under an undivided attentional state, their performance reverted to untrained levels. The experiment suggests that attentional state is primarily encoded during the early phase of learning, before motor errors decrease and performance plateaus.

Mastering Focus: Practical Implications for Skill Development

These findings have practical implications for how we approach skill development. While focused attention remains important, recognizing the role of attentional state can help optimize the learning process. If you're learning a new skill in a distracting environment, practicing recall under similar conditions may enhance your performance. Understanding the interplay between attention and motor skills can unlock new strategies for effective learning and adaptation in a dynamic world.

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: 10.1167/15.8.20, Alternate LINK

Title: Encoding Attentional States During Visuomotor Adaptation

Subject: Sensory Systems

Journal: Journal of Vision

Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)

Authors: Hee Yeon Im, Patrick Bédard, Joo-Hyun Song

Published: 2015-06-26

Everything You Need To Know

What is Visuomotor adaptation, and why is it important in this research?

Visuomotor adaptation refers to the ability to adjust movements based on visual feedback, which is essential for many motor skills. In the context of this research, participants adjusted their hand movements to compensate for a 45-degree rotation of a cursor on a screen. This task allowed researchers to study how attentional states affect the acquisition and recall of motor skills. The study used a dual-task paradigm that used a visuomotor adaptation task, and a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task.

How can divided attention actually help with learning new skills?

Divided attention can sometimes improve motor skill learning, which is a counterintuitive effect. This means that when you're learning a new skill, being distracted might surprisingly help you learn it better. The research shows that the attentional state you're in while learning a skill becomes part of the memory of that skill. So, if you learn a skill while distracted, you'll recall it better when you're distracted again. The study highlighted the importance of consistency between the attentional state during learning and recall, specifically during the early phase of visuomotor learning, which is the critical temporal window.

Why is the attentional state so important when it comes to learning motor skills?

The attentional state is crucial in motor skill learning because it influences how we encode and retrieve information about a motor skill. The research found that attentional state is encoded during the early phase of learning. If your attention is divided when you're first learning a new motor skill, that divided state becomes part of how your brain remembers the skill. Later, when you try to perform the skill, if you're in a similar distracted state, you'll likely perform better. This means that the environment, or the attentional conditions, in which you learn can greatly impact how well you perform later.

What role did the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task play in the experiment?

The RSVP task, or Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, was used as a secondary attention-demanding task. It served as a way to manipulate the participants' attentional state to create a divided attention scenario. During the experiment, participants were required to focus on the RSVP task while simultaneously performing the visuomotor adaptation task. By using this dual-task paradigm, the researchers could assess how divided attention affected both the learning and recall of the visuomotor skills.

What are the practical takeaways from this research for someone trying to learn a new skill?

The findings mean you might want to adjust how you practice new skills. If you often perform a skill in a distracting environment, practicing under similar conditions may enhance performance. This study demonstrated that learning environments have an impact. If you learn something while distracted, you might remember it better if you're distracted again when using it. This suggests strategies for optimizing the learning process in a world where multitasking is common. Also, the preasymptote period of visuomotor adaptation is the critical temporal window.