concentration & attention Flashcards
week 6
1
Q
according to Moran (2004) what is the defenition of attention?
A
“A person’s ability to exert deliberate mental effort on what is most important in any given situation”
2
Q
what are the 4 key characteristics of attention?
A
Selective Attention
Maintaining Alertness/Attention
Situational Awareness
Shifting Attention
3
Q
what is the defining characteristic of selective attention?
A
- selectign where to put attention
- focusing on relevant environmental cues
- disregard irrelenat cues
- internal (thoughts, feelings, experiences
- external= lights, sounds, etc.
4
Q
what is the defining characteristic of attention?
A
- Maintaining attention / concentration / focus
- Over a long period of time
- Being able to switch it on and off and be alert to cues
- Regaining concentration
- Finite resource- will run out
- Tiring!
5
Q
what is the defning characteristic of shifting attention?
A
- Shifting the scope and focus of attention
○ Narrow / Broad
○ Internal / External - Like a camera lens, we can zoom in and out
6
Q
what is the information processing approach?
A
- the theoretical lense we use to understand attention and conentration in sport
- alligns with cognitive psychology
- considers human thinking as a series of steps- like a computer processor
7
Q
what were the previous ideas of the information processing approach?
A
- Previous ideas= attention was a single channel in the brain
- Developed to being a choice on where individuals place their attention (selective attention)
- Having situation awareness
- Now the idea that attention has multiple tools (can run parallel channels at the same time)
- Much more multifaceted.
8
Q
what are the 3 processes of attention?
A
- Attentional selectivity
- Attentional capacity
- Attentional alertness
All happening at the same time
9
Q
what is selectivity?
A
- attentional selectivity
- spotlight sed to focus on what is most importnat
- it may be difficult to pinpoint the spotlight (focus on aspects that are too broad)
- causes distractions
- divides attention
10
Q
what is attentional capacity?
A
- Attention is limited – it’s a finite resource
- To mitigate this, we have two types of attentional processing:
○ Controlled - uses a lot more of our attentional resources
○ Automatic - have more attention here (not needing to consciously put it into the skill acquisition)
Conscious control vs automatic control
11
Q
what is attentional alertness?
A
- Connected to our levels of emotional arousal
- Too much emotion = narrow field of attention
- Cant focus on all relevant cues
- Missing cues in other areas
- E.g.: driving a car- if something diverts your attention (anger due to being cut off) may prevent us missing something in the environment (heightened emotions).
12
Q
what is attentional control theory?
A
- Eysenck et al. (2007)
- Top down (goal-directed) processing
- Having an aim to achieve- directed attention
- Thoughts, experiences and knowledge
- What is happening in the mind is controlling the outcome
- Bottom-up (stimulus-driven) processing
- Something from our senses triggers where we put our attention.
- Anxiety impairs goal-directed attentional system, so influenced more by stimulus-driven system
- Anxiety makes goal-directed processing more difficult- our senses take more of a control on where our attention is placed.
- Pay more attention to threatening stimuli (physical or emotional)
13
Q
what did Wilson et al (2009) study?
A
- Low and high-threat (could win money and was a crowed) penalty kicks
- Measured how many gaze fixations footballers made to goalkeeper and goal- area (i.e., threatening stimuli)
- What are they looking at/ what are they focusing on- diverting attention
- They found, in the high-threat group, footballers would fixate faster, more often, and for longer on the goalkeeper (i.e., the threat)- not on where they wanted to put the ball
- Decreased performance and shots landed within goalies reach
- More centralised kicks
Example of attentional control theory= how top-down and bottom-up attentional processing work.
14
Q
what is attentional focus?
A
- Explores where we put our attention.
- How do athletes only focus on relevant cues and stimuli?
- One theory (Nideffer, 1976) suggests its along two dimensions:
- Width (broad vs. narrow)
Direction (internal vs. external)
15
Q
what is attentional focus (width)?
A
- Width relates to broad or narrow focus of attention
○ Broad focus is when athletes are aware of different stimuli at once
§ Broad field of attention- lots of cues are attended to.
○ Narrow focus is when athletes can exclude irrelevant information
Focus on only important aspects of attention
16
Q
what is attentional focus (direction)?
A
- Direction refers to the target of an individual’s attention
○ External direction relates to an athlete focusing on stimuli external to them
§ The crowd, coach, other players, lights etc.
○ Internal direction relates to concentration on internal factors
§ In terms of thoughts, feelings, experiences, internal voice, goals set for ourselves - Can be on bodily movements (how our body feels)
17
Q
what are the key points of attentional focus?
A
- Useful to use as a sport psychologist with clients
○ Can easily visualise the concept of attention
○ Can map them onto the cross - Helps to bring awareness to attention
○ Where, when, who…
§ Where is attention during competition?
Can highlight attentional issues
18
Q
what are distractions?
A
- Internal distractions
○ Choking under pressure- complex - External distractions
○ Visual
○ Auditory - What cues are going to distract us (5 senses)
Break up distractions as cues: what cue is it hitting for us (auditory and visual)
19
Q
what is choking under pressure?
A
- Can be hard to define despite feeling ‘intuitive’
○ Attentional process - Typically characterised by a decrease in performance
- However, poor performance does not necessarily equal choking
○ Process that leads to impaired performance when good performance is the norm.- May be choking.
20
Q
what is the choking process (Hill et al, 2010; Weinberg & Gould, 2024).
A
- Conditions that lead to choking:
○ Internal (direction)
○ E.g.: evaluation by others/ important competition - Physical changes
○ In the body:
§ Increase in muscle tension
§ Increase in breathing rate
§ Heart rate will increase
§ Easily tip past optimal level of arousal
§ Strong link to “fight or flight” responses - Attentional changes:
○ Narrow focus
§ Cant focus on lot of cues at once
○ Reduced flexibility in attention
○ Focus more internally on the individual - Leads to performance impairment:
○ Coordination breakdown due to physical changes
§ Quicker fatigue due to increased focus. - Focus too much on internal movements: lose fluidity (choking is opposite to fluidity)
- Due to distractions
○ Attentional capacity is being used up somewhere else.
21
Q
how do we impove attention?
A
self-talk= develop scripts/ cue words to refocus attention
midfulness= practice of being mindful and non judgemental to our innermost thoughts and feelings
preperfromance routines= routine that is used before performances, form of mental preparation to get mind in routine of competition, a habit that is associated with a good quality performance.
