Choking under pressure: Multiple routes to skill failure.

Choking under pressure: multiple routes to skill failure.

Poor performance in pressure-filled situations, or "choking under pressure," has largely been explained by two different classes of theories. Distraction theories propose that choking occurs because attention needed to perform the task at hand is coopted by task-irrelevant thoughts and worries. Explicit monitoring theories claim essentially the opposite-that pressure prompts individuals to atte...

Preventing motor skill failure through hemisphere-specific priming: cases from choking under pressure.

When well-learned motor skills fail, such as when elderly persons fall or when athletes "choke under pressure," it is assumed that attention is directed toward the execution of the action. Research findings suggest that this controlled execution and subsequent inferior performance depend on a dominant left-hemispheric activation. In a series of 3 experiments, we tested whether increasing right-...

Choking and excelling under pressure.

Decrements in performance on cognitive tasks resulting from pressure to perform (i.e., choking) are thought to be caused by interference with the ability to use explicit strategies (the distraction theory). This view suggests that pressure should improve performance on tasks for which explicit strategies hamper performance. This hypothesis was tested by giving subjects one of two nearly identic...

Choking Under Pressure on the PGA Tour

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Choking Under Pressure: Environmental and Personality Variables