| Sports Science and Medicine: distractibility |
The ease with which irrelevant thoughts and external stimuli interfere with concentration on the task in hand. Distractibility is affected by levels of arousal: as arousal increases up to the optimum, the athlete's attention narrows and distractability decreases, but with levels of arousal above an optimum, the athlete's attention shifts sporadically from one cue to another, increasing distractibility and increasing the chances of a poor performance.
