Psych - Anxiety + Attention

Question 1

Define ‘Choking’ in sport - state author and date

Answer 1

The occurrence of inferior performance despite striving and incentives fir superior performance - Baumeister, 1986

• these athletes are highly motivated to achieve and therefore it cannot be explained by lack of motivation, ability or random fluctuations in performance

Question 2

Study on choking - interviewing baseball players asking them ‘what are the most pressured situations during a game’

• state author, date and results

Answer 2

Davis + Harvey (1992)

1st pressure situation - termed ‘2-out pressure’
- this is when a team has 1/2 people out on bases and third batter hits, trying not to run out teammates resulting in 2 people out
- found batting average was worse for all 26 teams

2nd pressure situation - ‘late innings pressure’
- when coming towards end of innings (2 batters out with one left), then this is a high pressure
- batting average was worse for 20/26 teams

Question 3

Study on choking - looking into what pressures correspond to scores in any of the sets in tennis matches

Give a bit more detail on what the study looked at, the author + date and results

Answer 3

Cohen + Zara et al (2017)

Looked at 1016 Grand Slam matched and modelled effect if pressure on likelihood of break of serve (score in set and observed if the player won or lost serve and the impact of this on the set)

Results…
- as you get towards end of set - whether you win or lose serve has much larger effect on outcome of set than is 2/3 games up
- its not an all or none thing - whilst games at end of set are higher pressure, there’s still a gradual increase ion pressure across all game scenarios

• additionally a good relationship between pressure associated with game score and probability of serve being broken (4.9% increase per 0.01 pressure increment for men and 2.8% for women)

Question 4

What is the stress process?

Answer 4

McGrath (1970) set out 4 stages of a ‘stress process’

1. Environmental demand - physical or psychological
2. Individuals perception of environmental demand - amount of ‘threat’ perceived
3. Stress response - arousal, state anxiety, muscle tension etc
4. Behavioural consequences - performance / outcome

Question 5

Stress Process study - muscle tension as a direct effect of pressure

Author and date, extra info + results

Answer 5

Senta, Ushiba + Takemi (2024)

Participants sat in front of a computer + pushed lever to aim to get this ball inside a certain zone - period of learning before increasing reward for each trial

Some did better under highest reward however some did worse (50/50 split) however what was muscle tension relationship?
- change in performance under pressure correlated with change in co-contraction
- group that did worse bad highest co-contraction on those trials (muscle tension is driving this performance)
- also correlated almost perfectly with activation of SNS

Question 6

Describe the Theory of Challenge and Threat States in Athletes (TCTSA)

Answer 6

Jones, Meijen, McCarthy + Sheffield (2009)

Challenge and threat are motivational states that reflect how an individual engages in a personally meaningful situation - includes cognitive, affective + physiological components

• appraisal or situational demands + resources determines coping potential

Question 7

Explain further what challenge and threat states are - responses etc (TCTSA)

Answer 7

Challenge states - increased Q, decreased BP (total peripheral resistance), positive valence, approach strategies

Threat states - smaller increase in Q, increased BP, negative valence, avoidance strategies

• these can be manipulated in research through different wording of instructions which creates different responses

Question 8

TCTSA - students had to throw a bean bag at a target from 6m away

Provide more detail on what they did, author + date and results

Answer 8

Turner et al (2014)

Researchers manipulated the instructions for each group…
1. Challenge group - emphasised you should feel confident in situation (manipulated self-efficacy, approach focus + sense of control)
2. Threat group - emphasised you shouldn’t feel confident (manipulated same things)

• challenge group had an increased Q compared to threat group (which slightly decreased)
• threat group had much higher total peripheral resistance (BP) whereas challenge group decreased
• challenge group did better (94.6 pts vs 85.7)

Question 9

What is the Contingency-Competence-Control Model?

Answer 9

Jones, Meijen, McCarthy + Sheffield (2009)

Emphasises the importance of perceived control + competence on performance, where an athletes perception of control sig. influences their ability to adapt under pressure

• essentially perceived control is a product of perceived outcome contingency + competence

Question 10

CCC Model - 10 people who took part in penalty shootout + asked them to rate themselves on 3 questions

• provide more detail (no results)

Answer 10

Jordet et al (2006)

• Contingency Q - what % of outcome is dependent on chance + what % on skill?
• Competence Q - rate skill in taking penalties from 1-10
• Control Q - what extent do you expect to score (0-10) and what extent do you expect to cope with stress (0-10)

Question 11

CCC Study (Jordet 2006)

Describe the results

Answer 11

Perceived control is a product of perceived outcome contingency + competence

• the more contingent on skill/ability, the more facilitative the interpretation of cognitive anxiety than if believe shootout is more contingent on luck
• experience less somatic anxiety as well
• If rated higher in competence - will experience less cognitive anxiety + what is experienced will be interpreted as facilitative

Question 12

Describe what Carver + Scheier (1981) said on attentional processes

Answer 12

If an early stage learner and using a lot of attentional resources on task itself, then they will have relatively limited capacity to do anything else

• even harder if there’s a cognitive component alongside moto task
• however, as skill develops then there is more attentional resource for headroom

Question 13

Describe the Processing Efficiency Theory briefly

Answer 13

Eysenck (1992)

Suggests that to some extent - you can increase the amount of mental effort on a central task and this will maintain performance for a while (can hinder processing efficiency)

Question 14

What’s the key prediction of the Processing Efficiency Theory

Answer 14

Key prediction is that there is no simple relationship between anxiety + performance as first thing that will decrease is efficiency of performance, not the performance itself

• may try harder to achieve same level of performance
• this is less effective for tasks that require more attentional processes + for performers that already use lots of attentional resources
• High trait anxious have more processing than low trait

Question 15

PET - volleyball performance over a season (assessing trait anxiety, in game anxiety, mental effort, set criticality, momentum + performance analysis

Author + date and results

Answer 15

Smith et al (2001)

all players expended more mental effort in critical / closer sets which impaired processing efficiency (for both high and low anxious individuals)

• high anxious = higher ratings of mental effort
• high anxious players performed worse but low trait anxious performed better in closer sets

Question 16

PET - student who could drive doing a rally simulation task under high and low pressure (different rewards etc)

Author + date and results

Answer 16

Wilson et al (2007)

under pressure…
- low trait anxious group increased mental effort a bit and high trait anxious increased a lot more

completion times…
- low anxious group had slightly slower times and high anxious increased a lot

Question 17

PET + attention narrowing - central and secondary task on a racing simulator

explain what this study did (no results)

Answer 17

Janelle et al (1999)

central task - Indy 500 racing simulator under increasing pressure (control = thought they were just oracticing whole time and pressure group underwent familiarisation, practice + competition)

secondary task - light would turn on 4 times per lap, if red = respond (by pressing lever on wheel) and if green = don’t respond

attentional narrowing would suggest that the got worse as secondary task as pressure increases (as central task is what the reward is based on)

Question 18

PET + attention narrowing - central and secondary task on a racing simulator

Results

Answer 18

Janelle et al (1999)

1. The anxiety group had 4x as many exogenous saccades to peripheral conditions (=impaired efficiency)
2. response times to red lights increased in competition phase
3. overall lap times decreased (=impaired performance)

Question 19

What is the Attentional Control Theory?

Answer 19

Eysenck et al (2007)

there are 2 attentional control ‘theories’
1. goal-directed - influenced by knowledge, expectations + goals
2. stimulus driven - influenced by salient or conspicuous (threat-related) stimuli

Question 20

What is the effect of anxiety on performance (Attentional Control Theory)

Answer 20

Anxiety supresses the ‘top-down’ processing

• as this is the one that draws more on working memory resources + is hard to do when taken up with stress
• anxiety will increase attention to threat-stimuli and reduce influence of higher-level cognitive processes

Question 21

Anxiety + visual attention in experts (before ACT was developed) - expert karate players had to respond to life-size videos of an opponent under low and high anxiety

Author + date and results

Answer 21

Williams + Elliott (1999)

Anxiety increased frequency of fixations to peripheral (threat-related stimuli)
- Arm/fist and feet
- more looking between chest to arm/fist and head to arm/fist (whereas before was more between head and chest)

accuracy was maintained under high anxiety conditions

Question 22

Attention to threat-related stimuli (ACT) - observing if GK was the biggest threat to performers doing a penalty (as surely they would be as they’re the ones saving it)

Author + date and results

Answer 22

Wilson, Wood + Vine (2009)

created a pressure situation (£50, leaderboard circulated etc)

• 26% more fixations + 56% more fixation time on GK
• quicker / earlier fixation on GK
• kicks ended 14cm closer to centre of goal = decreased performance

Question 23

Distraction by threat-related stimuli (ACT) - looked at 322 shoot-out kicks across 2 major championships. Observing if players are more distracted under pressure

Author + date and results

Answer 23

Furley, Noel + Memmert (2017)

• GK made more saves when they used distraction (27% vs 17% when they didnt)
• Fewer goals when the kicker looked towards (74%) rather than away from GK (86%)

Question 24

How has ACT been extended into sport?

Answer 24

Extended to include ongoing appraisals that affect anxiety (Harris et al, 2021)

• new bit is to say that level of anxiety experienced is affected by ongoing assessment of cost of failure + perceived probability of failure
• probability of failure is driven by errors made in a game (if just made an error, pressure situation will feel even worse) = additive effect

Question 25

ACT in sport - 650,000 points across 12 tennis Grand Slams - looking at ‘what’s the pressure of this point?’ and ‘has player just made an unforced error or not?’

Author + date and results

Answer 25

Harris et al (2021)

• Greater pressure = higher chance of making unforced error
• higher chance of making an error just after an unforced error (compound / additive effect)

Question 26

What are the 3 self-focus theories?

Answer 26

1. Self-consciousness
2. Reinvestment Theory
3. Explicit Monitoring

Question 27

Explain the self-consciousness theory

Answer 27

Baumeister (1984)

Under pressure, a person realises consciously that it is important to execute the behaviour correctly.

• consciousness attempts to ensure the correctness of this execution by monitoring process of performance (coordination + precision of muscle movements)

Question 28

Self-consciousness theory

What can happen during critical moments?

Answer 28

It can lead to overemphasis on movement mechanics, further affecting performance negatively

• stuff that is usually automatic is now being questioned = not good for motor skills

Question 29

Explain the reinvestment theory

Answer 29

Masters + Maxwell (2004)

Manipulation of conscious, explicit, rule-based knowledge (by working memory) to control the mechanics of one’s movements during motor output

• conscious monitoring of movements can reduce performance reliability

Question 30

What happens under pressure with regards to reinvestment theory?

Answer 30

Explicit instructions are given when learning skills and over time as we get better at them - it becomes easier and vast instructions are cut out

• under pressure, it is seen that we revert to long list of instructions

Question 31

Explain what explicit monitoring is

Answer 31

Beilock et al (2004)

The reinstantiation of explicit skill-monitoring + control mechanics that are needed by novices but should be exercised with caution by experts

• experts don’t usually require all steps + vast instructions as are more automatic and have adopted ‘shortcuts’ that allow this, so focusing on explicit instructions can be harmful

Question 32

Self-focus study - good hockey players asked to complete a dribble course between cones under a variety of conditions

Explain further these conditions

Answer 32

Jackson, Ashford + Norsworthy (2006)

• control (no tone sounded)
• tone sounded - reported whether lower hand was up or down
• dual task - had to report if tone was high or low

Question 33

Self-focus study - good hockey players asked to complete a dribble course between cones under a variety of conditions

Author + date and results

Answer 33

Jackson, Ashford + Norsworthy (2006)

• larger effect of pressure in higher reinvesters (slowed them down in dribble task)
• additive effect - doing extra task made them slower but it didn’t inoculate them to pressure (still got worse + felt pressure)
• doing dual task - everybody did better! (skilled players were faster when doing dual task compared to control)

Question 34

Self-focus study - basketball study on 3 point shots

Answer 34

Lidor, Lipshits, Arnon + Bar-Eli (2021)

Looked into 97 Israeli Div 1 players and asked - would you prefer a contested or uncontested 3pt shot?

• 93% of players and 100% coaches preference for uncontested
• but players showed that they were TWICE as successful on contested shots