Lecture 6: Attention and concentration Flashcards
concentration
- Concentration = attention
- “A person’s ability to exert deliberate mental effort on what is most important in any given situation” (Moran, 2004)
- Ability to maintain focus on relevant environmental cues
4 components of concentration
- focussing on relevant environmental cues
- maintaining attentional focus
- maintaining situation awareness
- shifting attentional focus
focussing on relevant cues
- Focussing on relevant environmental cues
§ Selective attention
§ Eliminate or disregard irrelevant cues
§ Learning and practice - build selective attention
§ External focus vs internal focus
§ Focusing on externally instead or internally (Bell and Hardy, 2009; Wulf, 2013).
maintaining attentional focus
§ Maintain focus over a long period of time
§ Regain concentration after breaks in the action
maintaining situation awareness
§ Understand what is going on around oneself
§ To size up game situations, opponents, and competitions to make appropriate decisions (under pressure and time demands)
shifting attentional focus
§ Ability to alter the scope and focus of attention
§ Necessary to shift attentional focus during an event
types of attentional focus
broad-external focus
broad-internal focus
narrow-internal focus
narrow-external focus
broad-external focus
assess the external environment
e.g. direction of the wind, length of fairway etc.
broad-internal focus
- recall previous experience
- select a particular club to use
- determine how to hit the ball
narrow- internal focus
- monitor tension
- image a perfect shot
- take a deep, relaxing breath as part of pre-shot routine
narrow-external focus
- address the ball
- focus is directly on the ball
- disregard other internal cues and thoughts
Differences between experts to novice performers in attentional processing:
Differences between experts to novice performers in attentional processing:
- Experts as compared to novice performers in attentional processing
○ Make faster decisions and better anticipate future events by using advance visual information (e.g., Abernethy & Russell, 1984; Jones & Miles, 1978; Savelsbergh, Williams, van der Kamp, & Ward, 2002, Williams & Burwitz, 1993)
○ Attend more to movement patterns (e.g., Abernethy, Gill, Parks, & Packer, 2001; Abernethy, Zawi, & Jackson, 2008)
○ Search more systematically for critical information cues (e.g., Abernethy, 1990; Williams, Davids, Burwitz, & Williams, 1994)
○ Selectively attend to the structure of offensive and defensive pattern
○ More successful in predicting the flight pattern of a ball (e.g., Allard & Starkes, 1980, Muller, Abernethy, Farrow, 2006
main theories of concentration
- Information processing approach
- Single-channel approach (fixed capacity)
- Variable (flexible) approach
- Multiple pools theory approach
information processing model
explain the role of attention in performance
single-channel approach (fixed capacity)
a single and fixed capacity channel
variable (flexible) approach
flexible and can choose where to focus their attention
multiple pools theory approach
attention like multiprocessors
3 types of attentional focus
attentional selectivity
attentional capacity
attentional alertness
attentional selectivity
○ Selective attention
○ “Letting some information into the information-processing system whereas other information is screened or ignored” (see Abernethy, 2001)
○ “Spotlight” (Perry, 2005)
○ More proficient in a given skill – more automatic control
§ When learning a skill – attention to all aspects of performing the skill itself
When become more proficient – attention can move to others
attentional capacity
○ Limited in the amount of information that can be processed at one time
○ Controlled processing to automatic processing
○ Controlled processing
§ Mental processing including conscious attention and awareness
○ Automatic processing
§ Mental processing without conscious attention
attentional alertness
○ Increases in emotional arousal – narrow the attentional field
○ Reduction in the range of cues that a performer considers in executing a skill
○ In stressful situations, performance on central vision task decreases ability to respond peripheral stimuli (Land & Tenenbaum, 2012)
○ Losses sensitivity to cues in the peripheral visual field with increased arousal
attentional control theory
- Attentional control theory (Eysenck et al., 2007)
○ Top-down (goal-directed) processing
§ Current goals and expectations
○ Bottom-up (stimulus-driven) processing
§ Salient stimuli
○ Anxiety
§ Impairs goal-directed attentional system, so influenced more by stimulus driven system
○ Threatening stimuli (e.g., the crowd or an opponent)
concentration and optimal performance
- Importance of proper attentional focus (high levels of performance)
- Attentional control (an important discriminating factor)
○ Less likely to become distracted by irrelevant stimuli
○ Exceptional concentration abilities
○ Optimal performance - the ability to focus, a special state of involvement, awareness of the task at hand.
○ Focus on only the relevant cues in the environment by eliminating distractions - Different eye movement patterns (focus of attention)
○ Expert player have a different focus of attention when compared to novices.
- Attentional control (an important discriminating factor)
broad
- Broad: attentional focus can perceive several situations at the same time
narrow
- Narrow: respond to only one or two cues
external
- External: direct attention outwards
internal
- Internal: direct attention inwards to self and feeling
recognising attentional problems
○ Inappropriate attentional focus
○ Distracted by thoughts, other events, and emotions (Jackson, 1995; Jones, 2012)
internal distractors
○ Come from within (Jackson, 1995)
○ Attending to past events (e.g. what was?)
○ Attending to future events (e.g. what if?)
choking under pressure
○ An attentional process that leads to impaired performance
Inability to retain control over performance without outside assistance
conditions leading to choking
important competition
critical plays in a competition
evaluation by others
physical changes in choking process
increased muscle tension
increased breathing rate
increased HR
attentional changes in choking process
internal focus
narrow focus
reduced flexibility
performance impairment due to choking process
timing an coordination breakdown
muscle tightness and fatigue
rushing
inability to attend to task-relevant cues
internal distractors include:
choking overanalysing body mechanics skill-focused attention fatigue inadequate motivation
overanalysing body mechanics
○ Focusing too much on body mechanics and movement
○ When learning a new skill - internal focus
○ Once skill is learned - automatic
○ Attention on the task (Beilock and Carr, 2001)
§ Learners - helpful learning the skill
§ Skilled performers - decrease in performance
fatigue
○ Concentration can be lost simply through fatigue
○ Reduces the amount of processing resources
inadequate motivation
lack of motivation
external distractors include:
- Stimuli from the environments
- Divert people’s attention from the cues
- Visual distracters
○ Spectators
○ Leader board in golf
○ Scoreboard - Auditory distracters
○ Crowd noise
○ Mobile telephones
○ Announcements
ways of assessing attentional skills
Test of attentional and interpersonal style (TAIS) (Nideffer, 1967)
psychological and neurological measures
Test of attentional and interpersonal style (TAIS) (Nideffer, 1967)
○ External vs internal, broad vs narrow?
○ Effective attenders: concentrate on several stimuli without getting overloaded (broad-external, broad-internal, narrow focus) ○ Ineffective attenders: easily confused by multiple stimuli (external overload, reduced focus, internal overload) ○ A trait measure ○ Situational factors? ○ Other measures to assess attentional capacity?
psychological and neurological measures to assess attentional skills
○ Psychophysiological assessments (Abernethy, Summers and Ford, 1998)
§ Brain waves - EEG (electroencephalography - electrical activity in the head measurement)
□ Close skills - golf, pistol shooting and archery (self-paced)
□ Accuracy of shooting performance - alpha frequencies
○ Heart rate
§ Deceleration in HR in shooting (Lacey, 1967)
□ Directing attention to outward
□ Target and stabilise and align the gun
§ Deceleration just before performance in self-paced activities (Hatfield and Hillman, 2001)
□ E.g., archery, pistol shooting, rifle shooting
how to improve attention
use simulations in practice use cue words use non-judgemental thinking establish routine develop plans overlain skills
how can simulations in practice be used to improve attention?
§ Training does not equal competition
§ Distractions and environmental conditions - systematically practicing in training session (Schmid, Peper and Wilson, 2011)
§ Simulation training - all the situations to be similar in the competition
how can cue words be used to improve attention?
§ Trigger a particular response
§ A form of self-talk
§ Instructional or motivational
how can non-judgemental thinking be used to improve attention?
§ Evaluate performance and classify it
§ Learn to look at your actions nonjudgmentally
§ See your performance as it is!
how can establishing routine be used to improve attention?
§ Mental preparation for an upcoming performance § Attention to task-relevant thoughts § Before or during an event □ Focus attention □ Reduce anxiety □ Eliminate distractions □ Enhance confidence
how can developing competition plans be used to improve attention?
§ Prepare events and prepare what they would do in different situations
§ Facilitate attentional focus on the process of performance
‘what if’ approach
how can over learning skills be used to improve attention?
§ Helps to concentrate
§ Make the performance of a skill automatic
Frees up attention to concentrate on others
exercises for improving concentration
learning to shift attention - shifting focus across external-internal and broad-narrow dimensions
learning to maintain focus - focusing on objects
searching for relevant cues - focus attention and scan environment for relevant cues
