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    J Exp Psychol Gen. 2001 Dec;130(4):701-25.

    On the fragility of skilled performance: what governs choking under pressure?

    Source

    Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824, USA. beilocks@pilot.msu.edu

    Abstract

    Experiments 1-2 examined generic knowledge and episodic memories of putting in novice and expert golfers. Impoverished episodic recollection of specific putts among experts indicated that skilled putting is encoded in a procedural form that supports performance without the need for step-by-step attentional control. According to explicit monitoring theories of choking, such proceduralization makes putting vulnerable to decrements under pressure. Experiments 3-4 examined choking and the ability of training conditions to ameliorate it in putting and a nonproceduralized alphabet arithmetic skill analogous to mental arithmetic. Choking occurred in putting but not alphabet arithmetic. In putting, choking was unchanged by dual-task training but eliminated by self-consciousness training. These findings support explicit monitoring theories of choking and the popular but infrequently tested belief that attending to proceduralized skills hurts performance.

    PMID:
    11757876
    [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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