Adult ADHD · Attention and everyday tasks

Feeling tone and the experience of effort

Pleasant, unpleasant and neutral experience, and a clinical practice of approaching manageable tasks with awareness, relaxation and curiosity.

Nisha Bal · Founder & Principal OT
Updated 11 October 2026

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Every experience has a feeling tone: pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. This is a Buddhist concept, and I find it a useful psychological framework in adult ADHD. Feeling tone is that pleasant, unpleasant or neutral quality, distinguishable from a whole emotion such as fear or anger and from the explanation we give it. Something attracts us, something feels difficult, or there is very little to draw us in. The Buddhist texts distinguish painful feeling from added mental resistance, and they describe resistance as a tendency that need not accompany every painful feeling. I use this distinction to examine what happens between the first feeling and the action that follows. An unpleasant feeling, the aversion to it and the decision to leave are distinguishable parts of the experience.

We often talk about an interest-based mind. A person can become deeply absorbed in an engaging activity and struggle to begin something they know is important. Knowing its practical value does not necessarily change how it feels to approach. The activity may be dull, uncertain, frustrating or associated with previous criticism. I want to investigate that first encounter closely. Difficulty beginning can involve the executive work of organising an action and the experience of being with that action once it is available.

Neutral feeling deserves its own attention. An activity may initially offer little pleasure or displeasure. A quiet moment can then become restless; a repetitive task can become unpleasantly boring; a lack of feedback can invite doubt. The phone provides an immediate alternative. We can notice this development rather than treating neutrality, boredom and aversion as one thing. Part of the clinical enquiry is whether someone has room for an experience that offers very little immediate reward.

The pattern I observe often develops like this. An unpleasant task feeling brings aversion. Avoidance gives relief, while unfinished work accumulates. A deadline approaches and urgency finally mobilises action. The person works intensely, gets the task done and feels relieved, but also stressed, depleted or angry with themselves. The next activity arrives with some of that history already attached. What looks like a succession of separate failures may be a repeated relationship with effort, relief and pressure.

Two learning points interest me. Leaving can become familiar because it changes the feeling quickly. Finishing under pressure can also strengthen the belief that pressure is necessary. A person may say they work best at the last minute because that is when action becomes available to them. Yet availability, work quality and personal cost are different questions. I want us to create an opportunity to begin before the deadline supplies the conditions, and to examine what the person learns from that beginning.

Research provides specific points of contact. In a small diagnosed-adult ADHD experiment, accepting an induced sad feeling was followed by faster recovery from feeling overwhelmed than suppressing its expression, although sadness intensity did not differ. Effort-choice research also distinguishes willingness to invest effort from performance capacity. These findings encourage a closer clinical question: what is the person experiencing, what do they predict will happen, and what support makes action possible while that experience is present?

My practice uses short, chosen bouts of a neutral or unpleasant activity, with awareness, relaxation and curiosity. We choose a manageable and meaningful building block. Opening one statement and locating one figure offers an action; sorting all one's finances contains a whole sequence. Task analysis matters here. We identify the information, materials, skill and executive support required so the person has something workable to approach. The duration and stopping point are agreed beforehand, rather than being determined by the first urge to escape.

As we begin, we attend to both the activity and the experience. There may be tightness in the jaw, a thought about getting it wrong, or an impulse to check another tab. These experiences can arrive close together and appear to be a single block. Curiosity helps us look at their parts. What exactly is unpleasant? Which instruction is uncertain? What does the urge ask us to do? The person can investigate those questions without accepting the conclusion that they are incapable.

Relaxation means softening unnecessary struggle enough to remain available for the next action. We can adjust our posture, loosen the grip in the hands and allow the breath to settle while doing the small step. Some tension may remain. In other human experiments, brief awareness practice increased willingness to contact aversive material, and naming fear during repeated short approaches reduced later physiological responding without a difference in reported fear. That is useful background for observing more than whether the person feels better immediately.

During the bout, we notice the urge to leave and return to the chosen step. The task may remain unpleasant. It may become clearer, contain an interesting detail, or produce satisfaction through progress. These possibilities are worth discovering. I want to review action and feeling separately: whether the person began, what they did, what support they used, and whether the first unpleasant feeling changed. A useful beginning may occur before enjoyment arrives. That gives us something specific to examine and repeat.

The pleasant and unpleasant elements of an activity can also change their relationship. Making something satisfying may involve uncertainty, practice and mistakes. A previously avoided activity may contain a moment of competence once its first step is understood. I want the person to discover those conditions through experience. The first feeling does not describe every part of the activity, and it need not determine what is possible next. If the demands exceed what can be worked with, we reduce them and investigate the support required.

Afterwards, we review what actually happened. Was the prediction accurate? Did an urge appear without deciding the action? Was the first step still too large? Did beginning before urgency feel different? We select another opportunity and adjust the conditions. Repetition can give the task a different history. This is a clinical observation and a practice I want investigated directly: supported action with ordinary discomfort, building a capacity to begin before interest or crisis takes over, with less aversion and less baggage about the self.

The evidence behind the article

Research notes and references

The clinician owns the proposed sequence and brief awareness–relaxation–curiosity practice. Buddhist sources establish its philosophical provenance and distinguish feeling from resistance; neutral tone is not identical to boredom. Existing task-onset, procrastination and adult ADHD accounts support separate links, not the full causal urgency loop. “Adrenaline” remains a description of felt mobilisation without a hormone assay. Reference 27 studied film-induced sadness in 36 diagnosed adults: recovery from feeling overwhelmed differed, not sadness intensity. Reference 28 concerns a brief breathing induction and aversive images; reference 29 concerns short spider exposures, with a significant later skin-conductance effect, marginal behavioural advantage and no reported-fear advantage. Reference 30 studied effort choices on/off prescribed amphetamine, not this practice. Full-package procrastination and adult ADHD treatment trials provide additional component evidence. Exact bout length, curiosity, the proposed expectation learning and generalisation require direct testing. Agreed endings, task analysis, review and modifying excessive demands are clinical design choices; no study establishes a dopamine reset. Vedanā here refers to pleasant, painful or neither-pleasant-nor-painful quality, distinguished from a complete emotion. MN44 (reference 20) describes feeling and associated tendencies without making resistance inevitable; SN36.6 (reference 19) distinguishes pain from additional mental resistance. Their contemplative setting supplies provenance, while task aversion and the chosen approach practice require the separate clinical and empirical evidence already identified. This is a conceptual application, not a biochemical translation.

References: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30.

Beheshti, A., Chavanon, M.-L., & Christiansen, H. (2020). Emotion dysregulation in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry, 20, 120. doi:10.1186/s12888-020-2442-7.
Read source 1
Study notes
Adult ADHD meta-analysis supports greater emotion-regulation difficulty at group level. It does not establish that every adult avoids unpleasant experience or that dopamine alone explains the pattern.
Janssen, L., Kan, C. C., Carpentier, P. J., Sizoo, B., Hepark, S., Schellekens, M. P. J., Donders, A. R. T., Buitelaar, J. K., & Speckens, A. E. M. (2019). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy v. treatment as usual in adults with ADHD: a multicentre, single-blind, randomised controlled trial. Psychological Medicine, 49(1), 55–65. doi:10.1017/S0033291718000429.
Read source 2
Study notes
Adult randomised trial supports structured mindfulness-based cognitive therapy alongside usual care. A multi-component programme does not establish the brief feeling-tone reflection as a treatment on its own.
Saṃyutta Nikāya 36.22. The Theme of the Hundred and Eight. In Bodhi, B. (Trans.). (2000). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha. Wisdom Publications. Translation hosted in the SuttaCentral archive.
Read source 3
Study notes
Canonical Buddhist source distinguishing pleasant, painful and neutral feeling. Supports the framework's provenance; it is not clinical evidence for ADHD treatment or a neurotransmitter explanation.
Russell, J. A. (1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(6), 1161–1178. doi 10.1037/h0077714.
Read source 4
Study notes
Primary Western affect research includes pleasure and displeasure. Used only to qualify the claim that Western psychology lacks a pleasantness concept.
Safren, S. A., et al. (2010). Cognitive behavioral therapy vs relaxation with educational support for medication-treated adults with ADHD and persistent symptoms: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA, 304, 875–880. doi 10.1001/jama.2010.1192.
Read source 5
Study notes
Adult randomised trial supports ADHD focused CBT for persistent symptoms alongside medication; not evidence for the feeling tone exercise itself.
Australasian ADHD Professionals Association. (2022). Australian evidence based clinical practice guideline for ADHD. Section 4.2.2 Cognitive behavioural interventions.
Read source 6
Study notes
Adult trials support structured cognitive and behavioural approaches. This evidence does not automatically establish the effectiveness of every coaching exercise.
Jackson, J. N. S., & MacKillop, J. (2016). Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Monetary Delay Discounting: A Meta-Analysis of Case-Control Studies. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 1(4), 316–325. doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2016.01.007.
Read source 7
Study notes
Meta-analysis with an adult subgroup supports average differences in delayed monetary reward valuation. Laboratory choices do not establish universal pleasure-seeking or effectiveness of everyday strategies.
Eckert, M., Ebert, D. D., Lehr, D., Sieland, B., & Berking, M. (2016). Overcome procrastination: Enhancing emotion regulation skills reduce procrastination. Learning and Individual Differences, 52, 10–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2016.10.001
Read source 8
Study notes
Randomised two-week study analysed 83 adult completers, mean age 40.8. A roughly ten-minute daily procedure joined task-feeling identification, tolerance, brief relaxation/reappraisal, action and review. Self-reported procrastination improved versus waitlist, d=0.34. This was not a ten-minute exposure interval or ADHD trial. Passive control, completer analysis, unmeasured adherence and no follow-up limit inference. Full primary paper read.
Eckert, M., Ebert, D. D., Lehr, D., Sieland, B., & Berking, M. (2018). Does SMS-support make a difference? Effectiveness of a two-week online-training to overcome procrastination. A randomized controlled trial. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1103. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01103
Read source 9
Study notes
161 students randomised to two-week training, training with daily SMS exercises, or waitlist. Planning, subgoals, task-emotion tolerance, relaxation and review were combined. No group contrast was significant immediately after treatment; at eight-week follow-up only supported training exceeded waitlist, d=0.57. About 35% had missing follow-up. Practice-frequency differences were nonsignificant overall. Not an ADHD trial; components and SMS mechanisms were not isolated. Full paper read.
Schuenemann, L., Scherenberg, V., von Salisch, M., & Eckert, M. (2022). ‘I’ll worry about it tomorrow’ – Fostering emotion regulation skills to overcome procrastination. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 780675. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.780675
Read source 10
Study notes
171 mainly university participants randomised to nine-week online general emotion-regulation training or waitlist; 148 completers aged 18–43 analysed. Training improved reported emotion-regulation skills and reduced procrastination, post-treatment between-group d=0.45. Statistical indirect effects implicated changes in emotion regulation. Self-report, completer analysis, passive comparator and no follow-up limit causal mechanism and durability claims. The programme trained general skills, not the clinician’s brief feeling-tone exercise; participants were not selected for ADHD. Full primary paper read.
Kang, M. Y., Cheung, Y. C. H., & Wong, D. F. K. (2026). Mindfulness intervention reduced executive dysfunction, delay aversion, and ADHD symptoms: A randomized controlled trial based on the dual pathway model. Behavior Therapy, 57(4), 654–666. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2026.01.002
Read source 11
Study notes
120 adults with elevated ADHD symptoms, mean age 25.11, randomised to eight-week mindfulness intervention or waitlist. Executive dysfunction, delay aversion and ADHD symptoms decreased and trait mindfulness increased. Mindfulness and executive-dysfunction changes sequentially mediated symptom change; delay-aversion reduction did not independently link to symptom change in the combined model. The accessible abstract does not establish clinically confirmed ADHD or validate brief discomfort exposure. Passive comparator and statistical mediation warrant restraint about mechanism. Primary abstract and institutional record verified.
Mousavi, D., Rief, W., & Wilhelm, M. (2026). Acceptance and commitment therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy single-session interventions reduce procrastination among students compared to a control group: The CONCRAS study. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. Advance online publication, 10 August 2026. https://doi.org/10.1159/pps/aemag001
Read source 12
Study notes
151 students with recurrent procrastination and a currently postponed task randomised to approximately one-hour ACT, CBT or no intervention; outcomes followed for two weeks. Both interventions reduced state procrastination more than control, with no significant ACT–CBT difference; task-related anxiety/doubt and psychological flexibility also improved. This supports brief supported psychological work, but not a minutes-long exposure protocol, ADHD-specific efficacy, long-term change or an identified dopamine mechanism. Primary indexed abstract read; full protocol and component-level results unavailable.
Rozental, A., Forsell, E., Svensson, A., Andersson, G., & Carlbring, P. (2015). Internet-based cognitive-behavior therapy for procrastination: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83(4), 808–824. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000023
Read source 13
Study notes
150 adults with substantial procrastination randomised to ten-week guided CBT self-help, unguided CBT or waitlist. Both interventions improved reported procrastination versus waitlist, with moderate effects; guided and unguided groups did not significantly differ. The registered protocol included graded exposure alongside behavioural activation, planning, cognitive work and stimulus control. This supports approach practice as a treatment component; its separate efficacy was not tested. Not ADHD-specific. Primary trial abstract and full original protocol checked; complete results article unavailable. Protocol: https://www.researchprotocols.org/2013/2/e46/.
Tice, D. M., Bratslavsky, E., & Baumeister, R. F. (2001). Emotional distress regulation takes precedence over impulse control: If you feel bad, do it! Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(1), 53–67. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.80.1.53.
Read source 14
Study notes
Three laboratory experiments examined distress and immediate gratification. The procrastination experiment analysed 88 undergraduates: induced bad mood increased observed diversion from test preparation especially when appealing distractions were available and participants expected their mood could change. A deceptive mood-freezing instruction removed this excess procrastination. This supports expected short-term mood repair as one avoidance motive. It did not test ADHD, repeated reinforcement, deadlines in daily life, or the proposed brief awareness practice.
Wieland, L. M., Ebner-Priemer, U. W., Limberger, M. F., & Nett, U. E. (2021). Predicting delay in goal-directed action: An experience sampling approach uncovering within-person determinants involved in the onset of academic procrastination behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 695927. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.695927.
Read source 15
Study notes
Eight-day experience sampling of 75 university students generated 501 paired task appraisals. Increasing perceived task unpleasantness between planning and intended action predicted greater odds of delay; increasing task value predicted less delay. Expected success also mattered, whereas estimated effort did not independently predict delay in the combined model. These within-person results closely support the feeling-tone/task-onset link. Self-report and observational design cannot establish causality; participants were not selected for ADHD or assessed for adrenaline.
Steel, P., Svartdal, F., Thundiyil, T., & Brothen, T. (2018). Examining procrastination across multiple goal stages: A longitudinal study of temporal motivation theory. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 327. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00327.
Read source 16
Study notes
A 15-week course study reported 171 students and 77 assessment points; a separate online survey included 7,400 participants. Observed coursework completion rose sharply near course end among greater procrastinators, consistent with temporal motivation theory. Procrastination related more to the intention–action gap than weak intentions. This supports deadline proximity changing action patterns. The study did not measure catecholamines, experimentally manipulate urgency, establish better work under pressure, or test whether eventual success reinforced later crisis dependence.
Babajanyan, D., Freame, L., Steele, R., & Poulton, A. (2023). Understanding attentional functioning in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—Could this improve diagnostic specificity? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(6), 5077. doi:10.3390/ijerph20065077.
Read source 17
Study notes
Qualitative workshop and follow-up contributions from 29 adults recruited through an ADHD organisation; 24 returned demographic questionnaires. Participants described dull-task aversion, deliberate distraction and stronger engagement with interesting tasks. Some described deadline panic as helping concentration. One described deadline anxiety without improved focus. Self-selection and qualitative reporting cannot establish prevalence, causal sequence, hormone release or objectively improved performance. Full primary article read.
Sirois, F. M., Stride, C. B., & Pychyl, T. A. (2023). Procrastination and health: A longitudinal test of the roles of stress and health behaviours. British Journal of Health Psychology, 28(3), 860–875. doi:10.1111/bjhp.12658.
Read source 18
Study notes
Three monthly assessments analysed 379 undergraduates aged 17–56, with 328 complete cases. Baseline procrastination predicted later stress; stress statistically linked procrastination with subsequent self-reported health problems, controlling conscientiousness and neuroticism. The indirect health-behaviour pathway was not significant. This supports costs persisting beyond a completed task. ADHD was not selected; procrastination was measured only initially, so the design did not directly test stress feeding back into greater avoidance or the entire proposed cycle.
Saṃyutta Nikāya 36.6. Sallattha Sutta: The Arrow. Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (1997). Access to Insight, revised 30 November 2013.
Read source 19
Study notes
Canonical Buddhist source distinguishing painful feeling from resistance and further mental suffering, with sensual pleasure described as a possible escape. It supplies philosophical provenance for observing feeling and reaction separately. The SEEDS ADHD application is contemporary clinical interpretation, not a treatment tested by the text. Complete primary translation read.
Majjhima Nikāya 44. Cūḷavedalla Sutta: The Shorter Set of Questions-and-Answers. Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (1998). Access to Insight, revised 30 November 2013.
Read source 20
Study notes
Canonical questions and answers describe pleasant, painful and neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling and explicitly distinguish feeling from associated tendencies: resistance need not accompany every painful feeling. Neutral tone is not defined as boredom. Philosophical source, not empirical ADHD evidence. Complete primary translation read; variant readings in the translator’s notes are not used as unqualified claims.
Wilbertz, G., Trueg, A., Sonuga-Barke, E. J. S., Blechert, J., Philipsen, A., & Tebartz van Elst, L. (2013). Neural and psychophysiological markers of delay aversion in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122(2), 566–572. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031924
Read source 21
Study notes
12 clinically diagnosed adults with ADHD, medication-free for more than two months, and 12 matched controls. ADHD participants reported more impatience, boredom and negative affect during delays and showed greater physiological arousal. Right-amygdala response changed differently as anticipated delay increased. This directly supports treating waiting as an aversive experience for some adults. Very small sample. Groups did not differ on behavioural delay-aversion tasks. Anticipatory neural and physiological responses do not prove that every unpleasant task causes avoidance, or that practising discomfort resets dopamine.
Bodalski, E. A., Abu-Ramadan, T. M., Hough, C. E., Lefler, E. K., Meinzer, M. C., & Antshel, K. M. (2023). Low standards yet disappointed: ADHD symptoms and experiential avoidance in college students. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 28, 180–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.04.002
Read source 22
Study notes
3,720 undergraduates; ADHD symptoms and experiential avoidance measured by questionnaires. Not a clinically diagnosed adult ADHD case-control sample; age range not verified in accessible abstract. ADHD symptoms were associated with experiential avoidance. Perfectionism dimensions partly accounted for that relationship: greater perceived discrepancy between expectations and achievement, alongside lower standards and order. Provides a direct research route into avoidance and harsh self-judgement. Cross-sectional self-report cannot establish causal mediation. This was not an acceptance-treatment trial and does not establish that feeling-tone practice reduces avoidance, or that avoidance is solely a dopamine phenomenon.
Netzer Turgeman, R., & Pollak, Y. (2023). Using the temporal motivation theory to explain the relation between ADHD and procrastination. Australian Psychologist, 58(6), 448–456. https://doi.org/10.1080/00050067.2023.2218540
Read source 23
Study notes
202 adults; symptom questionnaire sample, not a confirmed ADHD patient cohort. More ADHD symptoms correlated with more procrastination, task aversiveness and impulsiveness, and less confidence in successful completion. Statistical indirect effects implicated lower success expectancy and greater impulsiveness. Task aversiveness correlated with symptoms but did not emerge as the explanatory mediator reported in the abstract. Cross-sectional mediation is not causal evidence. Supports asking how a task feels and whether success seems possible, not reducing all procrastination to unpleasantness.
Bernacer, J., Gambra, L., Rodriguez-Romero, D., Carbonell, M. E., Magallon, S., & Arrondo, G. (2025). Association between ADHD symptoms, physical effort discounting, and unhealthy lifestyles in adults. Scientific Reports, 15, 17255. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-02024-9
Read source 24
Study notes
Cross-sectional study of 181 adults aged 18–33, including 58 clinically diagnosed ADHD participants, analysed dimensionally. More ADHD symptoms predicted fewer high-effort choices in a hypothetical treadmill-for-money task; greater effort discounting was associated with sedentary behaviour. In the actual button-pressing task, reward probability, money, fatigue and medication status influenced decisions, but ADHD symptoms were not independently significant. Medication comparisons were observational. This supports examining anticipated effort in lifestyle implementation; it does not establish cognitive-effort aversion, a dopamine mechanism, or intervention efficacy.
Kraus, J., Mlynski, C., Hartmann, F., Clay, G., Goschke, T., Silani, G., & Job, V. (2025). The pleasure of effort: Cognitive challenges trigger hedonic physiological responses. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1546, 100–111. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.15323
Read source 25
Study notes
Preregistered random-assignment experiment, final N=194, not an ADHD sample. Effort-contingent versus noncontingent monetary reward during working-memory training increased zygomaticus facial-muscle response after a subsequent unrewarded maths challenge, particularly difficult trials. An exploratory analysis linked that response with liking in the contingent-reward group. Group means for self-reported liking and wanting did not differ, and anticipation/engagement effects were absent. Supports a learned pleasure-related response after effort; no dopamine measurement, reset, ADHD treatment or biological need for suffering.
Strålin, E. E., Thorell, L. B., Lundgren, T., Bölte, S., & Bohman, B. (2025). Cognitive behavioral therapy for ADHD predominantly inattentive presentation: randomized controlled trial of two psychological treatments. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 16, 1564506. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1564506
Read source 26
Study notes
108 adults with predominantly inattentive ADHD in six clinics; CADDI versus an active ADHD CBT/DBT protocol. Organisation, activation and mindfulness were combined with follow-up support. Self-reported activation improved more with CADDI (d=0.49), but procrastination and other between-group outcomes were nonsignificant. Pandemic exclusions after randomisation, limited power and no longer follow-up matter. Primary methods, treatment components, results and limitations checked.
Matthies, S., Philipsen, A., Lackner, H. K., Sadohara, C., & Svaldi, J. (2014). Regulation of sadness via acceptance or suppression in adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Psychiatry Research, 220(1–2), 461–467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2014.07.017
Read source 27
Study notes
36 diagnosed adults randomised to accepting emotion or suppressing expression during a sad film. The acceptance condition recovered faster from feeling overwhelmed over the two-minute assessment interval; sadness intensity did not differ by strategy. Laboratory emotion regulation, not task initiation or brief-bout treatment. Primary abstract and publisher methods/results excerpts checked; full article inaccessible.
Arch, J. J., & Craske, M. G. (2006). Mechanisms of mindfulness: Emotion regulation following a focused breathing induction. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(12), 1849–1858. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.12.007
Read source 28
Study notes
60 mostly university adults randomised to 15-minute focused breathing, mind wandering or worry. Optional aversive-picture contact increased versus mind wandering, but not significantly versus worry. Not every affect measure differed. No ADHD, occupational task or durability assessment. Supports an awareness/willingness component, not the clinician’s whole practice. Full primary paper read in the previous research extension.
Kircanski, K., Lieberman, M. D., & Craske, M. G. (2012). Feelings into words: Contributions of language to exposure therapy. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1086–1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612443830
Read source 29
Study notes
88 spider-fearful adults randomised to affect labelling, reappraisal, distraction or exposure alone; twenty 38-second trials across two days. Labelling improved one-week skin-conductance responding relative to other conditions; its approach advantage over distraction was marginal (p=.054), with no reported-fear advantage. Not ADHD or task-effort treatment; assessors unblinded. Full primary manuscript read in the previous extension.
Chong, T. T.-J., Fortunato, E., & Bellgrove, M. A. (2023). Amphetamines improve the motivation to invest effort in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Neuroscience, 43(41), 6898–6908. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0982-23.2023
Read source 30
Study notes
20 adults with ADHD tested on/off prescribed amphetamine in counterbalanced sessions versus 24 controls. Off medication, willingness to invest cognitive and physical effort was lower; medication increased effort choices. Cognitive performance did not show corresponding group differences; physical performance improved on medication. Small, non-placebo comparison; no feeling-tone exercise. Primary abstract and published figure results checked; full text not retrieved.

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Research notes and references

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