Divided attention — hold multiple sources at once

Expand awareness to hold three or more sounds simultaneously without collapsing back to one.

Why it works

Dividing attention across multiple sources counters the tunnel-focus that characterises threat-preoccupied states. It also builds metacognitive awareness: to hold multiple inputs you must monitor your own attentional scope, which is the same monitoring capacity that lets you catch and exit rumination in daily life.

How to do it

1. After the shifting phase, try to attend to three sounds simultaneously — hold them all in awareness at once.
2. Notice the pull to collapse to one; that pull is what you are training against.
3. If you lose the wide field, restart with two sources and add a third after 30 seconds.
4. Hold divided attention for 90–120 seconds to complete the ATT session.

Evidence

Divided attention is the third phase of Wells’s ATT protocol. The broader literature on divided attention training shows it improves attentional breadth in laboratory tasks; ATT trials show downstream clinical benefit. Knowles et al. (2016) systematically reviewed ATT efficacy across clinical and nonclinical samples, corroborating the protocol’s downstream benefit. (clinical)

Transfer from the auditory training task to real-world attentional flexibility in anxiety contexts is plausible and supported by ATT trials but not fully decomposed.

Sources

• Knowles, M. M., Foden, P., El-Deredy, W., & Wells, A. (2016). A systematic review of efficacy of the Attention Training Technique in clinical and nonclinical samples. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 72(10), 999–1025.
• Papageorgiou, C., & Wells, A. (1998). Effects of attention training on hypochondriasis: a brief case series. Psychological Medicine, 28(1), 193–200.

Common mistake

Cycling between sounds rather than genuinely holding them in parallel — sequential shifting is easier but misses the divided-attention training stimulus.