Effects on Pain of Experimentally Induced and Spontaneous Distraction

A 2-min. pain stimulus was administered twice to 56 female Ss. The stimulus was first administered prior to the experimental treatments and again with either 1 or 3 distracting treatments (Listening to a Story, Adding Aloud, or Counting Aloud) or a Control treatment. The dependent variables were Ss' self-ratings of the degree of pain experienced and the percentage of time they were thinking about the pain. 16 Ss were also interviewed post-experimentally to determine their perceptions of the experiment. During the first, but not the second, minute of pain stimulation under the experimental treatments, Listening to a Story and Adding Aloud tended to reduce the degree of pain and the percentage of time Ss were thinking about it. The post-experimental interview indicated that, during the pre-treatment pain stimulation and also under the Control treatment, Ss used their own “spontaneous” distractions to reduce pain.