THINKING ABOUT CHOKING - ATTENTIONAL PROCESSES AND PARADOXICAL PERFORMANCE

When pressure to perform is increased, individuals commonly perform wo rse than if there were no pressure (''choking under pressure''). Two m echanisms have been proposed to account for this effect-distraction (c ognitive load), wherein pressure distracts attention from the task, an d self-focus, wherein attention shifts inward interfering with perform ance. To distinguish between these two competing explanations the curr ent experiment manipulated pressure by offering performance-contingent rewards. For half the participants, cognitive load was increased by r equiring participants to count backward from 100. Additionally, adapta tion to self-awareness was manipulated by videotaping half the partici pants during practice trials. Results show that pressure caused chokin g when participants were not distracted and had not been adapted to se lf-awareness. This effect was attenuated when. cognitive load was incr eased or when self-awareness adaptation had occurred. These results su pport self-focus mediated misregulation as the mechanism for choking a nd disconfirm the distraction hypothesis.