Anxiety, Attention and Performance Flashcards
What does drive theory suggest?
Arousal increases the likelihood that the dominant response will occur
Effects of arousal on performance depend on the skill level
In early stages of learning, high arousal impairs learning
In advanced stages, high arousal improves performance
What does the Inverted-U theory suggest?
That increased arousal improves performance up to a point after which further arousal increases impair performance
It also suggest that levels of optimal arousal depends on the type of sport
What does the multidimensional anxiety theory (martens et al,1990) state?
It states a proposed distinction between cognitive and somatic anxiety
CA has a negative relationship with performance
SA has an inverted U relationship with performance
What is a basic description of PET (eyesenck and calico, 1992)
It is based on the assumption that individuals have a limited pool of resources
What is the first function of anxiety according to PET?
To consume attentional resources, anxiety reduces processing efficiency, too much anxiety is bad as it reduces the amount of attentional resources devoted to task at hand
What is the good, second, function of anxiety?
It increases effort, in these situations processing efficiency decreases but performance level does not
A study showed that anxiety and effort were greater in competition condition compared to a ‘do your best’ command which lead to performance increasing
What did a study show about anxiety and golf?
Anxiety increased based on the pressure of the situation and so did effort, however this didn’t equal improved performance in this case
- possibly due to the fact that getting the ball close to hole requires less resources than getting the ball in
What is attention?
The cognitive process of selectively concentrating on certain aspects of the environment while ignoring others
Explain the ideas of attention having a limited capacity?
There is a limited pool of resources for information processing
Multiple sources of attention can be processed at the same time
Attention is compromised when required resources exceed available resources
How do the attentional demands differ between novices and experts?
For novices, the attentional demands of a skill are high
For experts the attentional demands are low
What is selective attention?
The ability to selectively attend to appropriate stimuli and to ignore the irrelevant information
At autonomous stage, skill execution operates by fast efficient procedures
What is reinvestment theory? (Masters et al, 1993)
Under pressure, people reinvest explicit (declarative) knowledge in a deautomization process, performance suffers as we reinvest because we reverb to a more novice stage
What association did Masters find between putting performance and reinvestment?
A negative association (r=-0.59)
Another study showed players more likely to choke under pressure had higher reinvestment scores
What did Pijpers et al (2005) find?
Results showed more anxiety for the high route compared to the low route
More explorative movements in the high route
The high route also took longer to complete
What did a study looking at dribbling in novices and experts?
A skill focused condition helped novices, this condition harmed the experts (affected automaticity)
Distractions harmed novices and helped experts
