Attention and Concentration Flashcards
what is concentration
concentration=attention
Moran 2004- ‘ a persons ability to exert deliberate mental effort on what is most important in any given situation’
-ability to maintain focus on relevant environmental cues
4 parts of concentration
1- focusing on relevant environmental cues (selective retention), eliminate irrelevant cues/ learning and practice to build selective attention/ external focus of attention is more beneficial (Bell and Hardy 2009).
2- maintaining attentional focus during a long period of time- important to regain concentration after breaks in action
3- maintaining situation awareness- understanding what is going on around oneself- to size up game situations, opponents, and competitions and make appropriate decisions under pressure and time demands
4-shifting attentional focus- ability to alter the scope and focus of attention
differences between experts and novices
experts make faster decisions and better anticipate future events using advance visual info
- they also attend to movement patterns
- they selectively attend to the structure of offensive and defensive pattern
- more successful in predicting the flight pattern of a ball
experts vs novices in squash- Abernethy 1990
compared anticipation ability of experts and novice squash players
- 16 expert and 20 novices
- they had to predict both the direction and force of the opponents stroke
findings- experts performed better across all different movement types and force
so they are better at using advance postural information
experts vs novices- Loffing and Hagenmann 2014- handball
14 experts 23 novices
- amount of viewing time varied and parts of their body was removed in some images
- they had to predict the type of throw (hard or robbed shot)
findings- experiences goal keepers predicted better
so they are better able to pick up advance information cues
Theories of concentration- attentional focus - 3 process
1- selective attention. More proficient in a given skill due to more automatic control= when learning a skill attention to all aspects of performing the skill itself
2-Attentional capacity- limited in the amount of information that can be processed at one time. controlled processing= mental processing including conscious attention and awareness
automatic processing= mental processing without conscious attention
these types is why they can attend to different stimuli at the same time
3- attentional alertness- increasing emotional arousal will narrow the attentional field due to reduction in the range of cues that a performer considers in executing a skill.
Theories- attentional control theory (Eysenck et al 2007)
1- top down (goal directed) processing- influenced by current goals and expectations
2- bottom up (stimulus driven)processing- influenced by salient stimuli
anxiety will impair goal directed attentional system
Wilson Wood and Vine 2009- Penalty kicks- anxiety effects on attentional control= in low threat no instruction was given/ in high threat a £50 prize was given and a evaluation of their shot. The low threat did a better penalty.
Theories- the reinvestment theory- Masters, Polman, Hammond 1993)
when under pressure performers consciously focus attention on the process of the task and this disrupts normal automatic processing
reinvestment scale= higher reinvestment means performance will decrease under pressure
The importance of proper attentional focus
successful players are less likely to become distracted by irrelevant stimuli
they also have exceptional concentration abilities
they focus on only the relevant cues
4 types of attentional focus (Nideffer and Segal 2001)
1-broad
2-narrow
3–external
4-internal
Broad external focus- allows person to rapidly assess a situation and percieve several situations at the same time
narrow internal focus- Used to mentally rehearse an upcoming performance or control an emotional state
narrow external focus- used to direct attention outward to one or two external cues
broad internal- used to analyse and plan the game situation
Attentional problems-
-internal distracters (Jackson 1995)- within ourselves e.g. focusing on past events/ past mistakes/ attending to future events e.g. what if I lose this point
-choking under pressure- an attentional process that leads to impaired performance/ inability to retain control over performance without outside assistance
-The choking process= muscle tension and heart rate increases due to important competition or other external factors leading to attentional changes such as narrow focus or reduced flexibility, and this leads to performance impairment
Study- Jordet and Hartman (2008)- soccer players more likely to show avoidance player when it was a negative shot(when a miss would mean they lose the game) and scored 30% fewer goals with negative valence shots than with the positive.
- Overanalysing body mechanics- focusing too much on body mechanisms and movement. once a skill is learnt well we have to move our focus externally as it is automatic but if we focus too much on body movement our attention will suffer (Beilock and Carr 2001)
- study- Beilock et al 2002 studied a skill focus condition, skill focused= asked ppts to monitor which part of your foot contacts with the ball vs dual task= asked ppts to constantly say target word. Findings- higher performance in expert players in the dual task but performance was lower than novices showing skill focused attention can disrupt skilled movements.
- Fatigue- concentration lost to fatigue as it reduced amount of processing resources
- Inadequate motivation- lack of motivation causes attention problems
- external distracters- divert ppls attention from the important cues e.g. visual distracters such as other players or the crowd or auditory distracters
Assess attentional skills-
-(Niderffer 1976b) TAIS- test of attentional and interpersonal style.
scale to assess if its internal or external or broad or narrow.
negatives of this assessment- it doesn’t assess situational factors as it is just a trait measure
- EEG- used to assess closed skills. This is very accurate.
- Heart rate measure-Hattfield and Hilman found decreases heart rate before self paced activates showing focused attention on the skill
how to improve concentration
on site techniques (Macpherson Collins and Morris 08)
1= use stimulations in practice- make training similar to competition e.g. same distractions in practice- try put yourself under the same pressure as you expect on competition day
2-using cue words- trigger a particular response (a form of self talk)
3- use non judgmental thinking- evaluate performance and classify it but learn to look at your actions nonjudgmentally - see your performance as it is.
4- establish routines= mental preparation for an upcoming performance or skill/ attend focus to task related thoughts to reduce anxiety.
5- develop competition plans- prepare events and prepare what they would do in different situations- called the what if approach as you have to think what if something happens and how to plan for that
6-overlearn skills so they are automatic to free up attention for other things such as the other players (Hardy et al)
exercise to improving concentration skills
- learning to shift attention- shifting from internal to external and broad to narrow dimensions
- learning to maintain focus- focusing on hockey puck or soccer ball
- searching for relevant cues- focus attention and scan the environment for relevant cues
