Is the intended formula "make something unpleasant palatable by pairing it with something pleasant?" Because I think the effect is actually "make something cognitively challenging even more so by pairing it with powerful distractions." I also recall reading studies showing that men's cognitive performance degraded around pretty women, so perhaps these are simply fundamentally at odds.
Sadly said guide to semiconductor physics provided better information than other online sources back when I was in school. Hopefully things have changed.