distractibilityn.
/dɪstraktɪˈbɪlɪti/ The condition of being distractible; inability to give prolonged attention to a task or object; esp. in Psychology, the tendency to have the direction of one's attention easily changed by chance stimuli.
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1902 A. R. Diefendorf tr. E. Kraepelin Clin. Psychiatry 16 Distractibility is more marked in chronic nervous exhaustion.
1923 Jrnl. Appl. Psychol. 7 358 This same group also showed a larger percentage of ‘irritability’, ‘distractibility’,..and marked ‘slowness of reaction’ than did the other two groups.
1940 Mind 49 69 The fluctuations and distractibility of attention are of obvious importance to applied psychologists.
1962 D. K. Henderson & R. D. Gillespie Text-bk. Psychiatry (ed. 9) vi. 109 Distractibility is a disorder of the attention in which the patient gives attention to every passing stimulus.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1972; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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n.1902