Chapter 8: Thinking and Athletic Performance Flashcards
What is “conditioned sensing”? Describe an example other than conditioned seeing that is not in this chapter.
Conditioned sensing is bringing some physiological activity associated with one or more of our senses under the control of a previously neutral stimulus. An example could be smelling a type of baking that your mother made regularly doing your childhood and then imagining your childhood home (conditioned seeing), hearing your mother’s voice (conditioned hearing), and a general feeling of contentment (conditioned feeling).
In a sentence or two, describe what is meant by “mental rehearsal”.
Mental rehearsal or mental practice refers to the process of imagining and feeling oneself perform an activity. It is likely to include several types of conditioned sensing.
Distinguish between internal and external imagery.
Encouraging athletes to feel themselves performing is often referred to as internal imagery, while encouraging athletes to imagine that they are watching themselves perform is often referred to as external imagery.
List 5 ways that athletes might use mental imagery to enhance practice performance.
- Imagery to energize before practices. 2. Instant mental replays to learn the feelings of correctly-performed skills. 3. Imagery practice sessions away from the sport environment. 4. Imagery at practices before performing previously-learned skills to increase the likelihood of performing successfully. 5. Visualization to simulate the competitive environment (to promote generalization to competitions).
Describe an example (that was not in this chapter) to illustrate how an athlete might use visualization at practices to promote generalization of a skill to competitions.
Example: a basketball player could first visualize himself doing a normal shooting routine such as bent knees, almost 90 degree elbow bend, breathing in while aiming the ball and exhaling out when shooting the ball on the free-throw line before shooting his shot.
List four ways that athletes might use mental imagery and/or visualization to enhance competitive performance.
- Imagery for emotional control. 2. Imagery for mental toughness. 3. Mental rehearsal of a skill just before performing. 4. Imagery to help tune out distractors.
What is meant by the term “keyword”? Describe a sport example that is not in this chapter.
A key word or technique word serves as an SD (stimulus discrimination) to prompt particular body positions of focus of attention. Example: a golfer thinking, “shoulder turn” to prompt a full shoulder on the back swing.
List two ways that athletes might use self-talk to enhance practice performance.
- Self-talk to enhance motivation.
2. Key words for skill acquisition and performance.
Describe the strategy for programming stimulus generalization referred to as “programming common stimuli”. How was that strategy used by Tess Virtue and Scott Moir?
Stimulus generalization occurs when a behaviour becomes more probable in the presence of one stimulus or situation as a result of having been strengthened in the presence of similar stimuli. Virtue and Moir used the key words “relax, calm, knees”. They used this in subsequent practices and in competitions right before their programme.
Describe an example not in this chapter that illustrates how an athlete might use key words to transfer a skill from practices to competitions.
A soccer player who typically gets nervous before a kick says “breathe”. This exercise can be used in practice and then transferred to competition by recognizing when he/she gets nervous.
What is meant by the term “desired mood words”? Illustrate with a sport example that is not in this chapter.
Desired mood words are words that elicit emotional feelings which have been associated with past successful performance. Example: a rugby player right before the game might want to say things like “be aggressive”, “stay focused”, etc. to maintain intensity during the game.
Briefly describe each of Nideffer’s 4 major categories of stimulus control of athletic performance, and illustrate with a sports example that is not in this chapter.
- Broad external stimulus control: indicates that in some athletic situations, the athlete must attend to a number of different external cues in a short period of time. Example: a rugby player in the middle of a game trying to find an open player to pass to while at the same time being aware of the opposing team closing in on him.
- Narrow external stimulus control: an athletic skill under the stimulus control of a specific external stimulus, and the ability of the athlete to ignore a variety of potential distracting cues. Example: a rugby player focusing on the goalie line and making a score, and ignoring the opponents chasing him.
- Broad internal stimulus control: instances of thinking about complex problems in the absence of any obvious external SDs. Such thinking is often referred to as analyzing, planning, and problem solving. Example: a soccer coach at half-time might evaluate the different defensive formations of the opposing team and recall the offensive sets that resulted in successful and unsuccessful results.
- Narrow internal stimulus control: to situations where an athletic skill is under the control of a specific internal cue. Example: A diver might focus on the feeling of being directly at the edge of a diving board before making a jump.
List the 3 components of a strategy used with professional hockey players to help them “stay in the game” when sitting on the bench in between shifts on the ice. Describe examples of self-talk for the last 2 components.
- Relax: they relaxed during the first 30 seconds or so after a shift.
- Regroup: they rehearsed general self-talk to put the last shift behind them and get ready for the next one. Example: “That one’s gone forever”, “The rest of my game starts now”.
- Refocus: they reviewed key words to help them be properly focused for the next shift. Example: “I’ll jump on loose pucks”, “I’ll finish my checks”.
List 5 ways that athletes might use self-talk to enhance their performance in competitions.
- Use keywords for a skill to transfer that skill from practices to competitions.
- Mood words to control feelings of desired emotions.
- Self-talk for shifting attention to different cues.
- Self-talk for refocusing during a break in the action.
- Self-talk to stop negative thoughts and emotions.
