DALLAS: Whether it’s finishing a report or searching for lost keys, if you want to get through a task, focus is everything. Distractions are everywhere, and they can really slow you down. If you find yourself lagging through something because you’re distracted, try talking yourself through the process out loud.
In a study, researchers split subjects into two groups. Half were asked to look at pictures of various objects and find the banana. The other half were asked to do the same thing, but they were also instructed to say out loud what they were looking for. Researchers reported that the group who talked out loud found the banana slightly faster. They concluded:
…verbal labels can change ongoing perceptual processing—for example, actually hearing “chair” compared to simply thinking about a chair can temporarily make the visual system a better “chair detector”. Participants searched for common objects, while being sometimes asked to speak the target’s name aloud. Speaking facilitated search, particularly when there was a strong association between the name and the visual target.