Psych Exam 1 - Slides

Goals of sport psychology:

• Understand the effects of psychological factors on physical or motor performance

• Understand the effects of physical activity participation on psychological \\n development, health, and well-being

Where does sport psychology \n knowledge come from?

• Science

\n – Qualitative research \n – Quantitative research

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• Professional practice

\n – Systematic observation \n – Informal case studies \n – Shared public experience \n – Introspection \n – Intuition

Correlational study

– Two or more variables are measured (none are \n manipulated) and their relationship is assessed

\n – Cannot determine causality

\n Experiment

– An independent variable is manipulated and a \n dependent variable is measured and their \n relationship is assessed

\n – Allows us to determine causality

\n – But might be harder to conduct

Where does sports psychology knowledge come from?

• Science \n – Qualitative research \n – Quantitative research \n • Correlational studies \n • Experiments \n • Professional practice \n – Systematic \n observation \n – Informal case studies \n – Shared public \n experience \n – Introspection \n – Intuition

Scientifically-derived knowledge

Pros:

•Highly reliable \n •Systematic and \n controlled \n •Objective and \n unbiased

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Cons:

•Reductionistic, \n conservative, often \n slow to evolve \n •Lack of focus on \n external validity

Professional practice-derived knowledge \n

Pros:

•Holistic \n •Innovative \n •Immediate

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Cons:

•Less reliable \n •Lack of explanations \n •Greater susceptibility \n to bias

Assessing a quantitative study

• Is it an experiment or correlational study? \n – Affects our ability to draw causal conclusions \n • What is the sample size? \n – More confidence in results from larger samples \n • Do the manipulations and measures seem valid? \n • Are there alternative explanations for the results? \n • To whom do the results generalize? \n • Were the hypotheses/analyses pre-registered? Is the \n complete data file publicly available? \n – More confidence in pre-registered studies with posted data \n – But this is something you’ll only see with recent studies

Personality

The ways in which \n individuals differ in their characteristic \n patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving

Studying personality

• Consider both what the person is generally \n like and how the situation affects the \n person \n – Trait measures – examine an individual’s \n typical behavior style (how the individual \n usually feels) \n – State measures – examine the current \n situation’s effect on behavior (how the \n individual is feeling at a particular time)

Personality testing

• Commonly done via self-report; ratings from \n others are underutilized but informative

\n • Specificity helps \n – Sport-specific measures of personality better predict \n behavior in athletic situations than general measures \n of personality

\n • Want a reliable and valid test \n – Reliability – do you get similar results if you survey a \n person twice? \n – Validity – is the test measuring what you think it is \n measuring?

The Big 5

Openness to experience \n Conscientiousness

Extraversion, \n Agreeableness

Neuroticism

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• Conscientiousness tends to be the most \n linked to good performance across domains

\n • For extraversion (Allen et al., 2013) \n - Athletes > Non-athletes \n -High-risk athletes > Low-risk athletes \n –Team sport athletes > Individual sport athletes

Perfectionism

• Involves setting high standards, striving for \n flawlessness, and being critical when \n evaluating performance

\n • Can be adaptive or maladaptive \n – Maladaptive: When a person can’t get over \n their mistakes or worries about what others \n think

Grit

• “Trait-level perseverance and passion for \n long-term goals”

\n • Involves maintaining interest and effort in \n achieving goals, even when facing adversity

\n • Predicts greater athletic performance and \n amount of training

Short Grit Scale

1. New ideas and projects sometimes distract me from
previous ones.
2. Setbacks don’t discourage me.
3. I have been obsessed with a certain idea or project for
a short time but later lost interest.
4. I am a hard worker.
5. I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a different
one.
6. I have difficulty maintaining my focus on projects that
take more than a few months to complete.
7. I finish whatever I begin.
8. I am diligent.

Narcissism

• Involves high self-confidence, exaggerated \n self-worth, a sense of entitlement, and a \n desire for authority

\n • Leads to good sport performance in high \n pressure situations and in situations where the individual’s \n performance can be identified

Narcissism and dart throwing

* High narcissists performed better under high pressure vs low narcissists performed worse under high pressure

\
• 54 participants filled out the NPI and then \n threw darts \n – 20 practice throws \n – Round 1: 10 throws, score recorded \n – Manipulation: Half of the people told that they \n needed to tie or beat their score to earn $5 \n and warned that they might choke \n – Round 2: 10 more throws

Profile of Mood States (POMS)

• Measures tension, depression, anger, \n vigor, fatigue, and confusion

\n • Various versions, commonly used

\n • Morgan (1979) found that \n a) elite athletes have more vigor and less of \n the negative moods than the population \n norms \n b) more successful athletes report greater \n positive mental health than do less \n successful athletes

Recent POMS results

• Very small effects when using the POMS \n to differentiate more successful and less \n successful athletes

\n • Among athletes at similar achievement \n levels, having an iceberg profile before \n competing is associated with a better \n performance \n – Sport-dependent optimal profiles

Cognitive strategies

• The skills and techniques athletes use in \n competition \n – Examples: Mental plans, arousal regulation

\n • One way to measure them: The Athletic \n Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI) \n – Can differentiate between more successful \n and less successful athletes (e.g., elite \n athletes better cope with adversity)

Smith & Christensen (1995)

In the preseason, 104 minor-league baseball \n players filled out the ACSI with subscales

\
• For batters: ACSI scores were as \n important as physical skill ratings for \n predicting batting average

\n • For pitchers: ACSI scores were more \n important than physical skill ratings for \n predicting ERA

Ericsson’s ideas

• Innate talent or ability doesn’t matter

\n • Becoming an expert takes many years of \n deliberate practice

\n • But not just any practice – need to work \n smart and not just work hard

Deliberate practice

• Task is appropriately challenging

\n • Learner receives feedback

\n • Lots of repetition

\n • Possible for learner to correct errors

Other views on becoming an \n expert

• Gladwell – need natural talent plus lots of \n practice

\n • Epstein – natural talent is key (top athletes \n have genetic advantages)

Recent meta-analyses

• Why was deliberate practice less important than \n it was expected to be? \n – They didn’t look at just deliberate practice, as defined \n by Ericsson (Ericsson’s view

Motivation

• The direction and intensity of one’s effort

\n • Comes from personal factors and \n situational factors

\n • Different people are motivated by different \n things and people often have many \n motives for participating in sports

Achievement motivation

• A person’s orientation to strive for task \n success, persist in the face of failure, and \n experience pride in accomplishments

Explaining achievement motivation

1. Need achievement theory
2. Attribution theory
3. Achievement goal theory
4. Competence motivation theory

1. Need Achievement Theory

* High achievers select tasks with a 50% chance of success
* Low achievers select tasks with a very high or very low chance of success.

2\. Attribution theory

• Attributions – how people explain their \n successes and failures \n – Stability (stable or unstable) \n – Locus of causality (internal cause or external \n cause) \n – Locus of control (in one’s control, out of one’s \n control)

Attributions for success

• Stable cause – increased expectations of \n future success

\n • Internal cause – increased pride

\n • Controllable cause – increased motivation

Attributions for failure

• Motivation to improve results when \n attributions for failure are \n – Unstable \n – Internal \n – Controllable

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• Externalizing failure protects self-esteem \n and reduces anger about failure but is bad \n in the long run!

3\. Achievement goal theory

• Achievement goals \n – Ego goal orientation – focuses on comparing \n performance with that of others and defeating \n others \n – Task goal orientation – focuses on improving \n relative to one’s past performances

Problems with ego goals:

• Hard to maintain perceived competence

– Can’t control performance of others \n • Ego orientation + low perceived \n competence = a maladaptive achievement \n behavioral pattern

\n – Reduce effort \n – Make excuses \n – Choose very easy or very hard tasks \n – Perform worse in evaluative situations

\n • May lead to less enjoyment

Entity and incremental theories

• Entity theory – belief that a particular \n ability (intelligence, athleticism, etc.) is a \n fixed trait, unable to be changed through \n effort (fixed mindset) \n – Adopt an ego goal focus

\n • Incremental theory – belief that an ability is \n malleable, it is a potential that can be \n developed through effort (growth mindset) \n – Adopt a task goal focus

Implicit theories of athleticism

• Entity item: \n – You have a certain level of athletic ability, and \n you cannot really do much to change that.

\n • Incremental item: \n – You can always improve your athletic ability

Consequences of theories

• Entity theorists \n – Give up after failure \n – More anxiety and less satisfaction in challenging \n situations \n – When combined with low perceived competence, \n more self-handicapping

\n • Incremental theorists \n – Persist after failure \n – Increased satisfaction \n – Less self-handicapping

Implicit theories experiment

• 50 college students learned about one of \n two sets of recent studies

• Participants watched exercise videos

• After experiencing difficulty, participants in \n the incremental condition reported: \n – More motivation (e.g., “How motivated were \n you to keep up with the video?”) \n – More self-efficacy (e.g., “How well do you \n think you performed the exercises in the \n video?”)

Table 4.2: The high achiever

• Motivational orientation \n – High motivation to achieve success \n – Low motivation to avoid failure \n – Focuses on the pride of success

\n • Attributions \n – Ascribes success to stable and internal \n factors within one’s control \n – Ascribes failure to unstable and external \n factors outside one’s control

-But this isn’t the ideal \n attributional pattern for \n long-term improvement

\
• Goals adopted \n – Task goals \n – Approach goals

\n • Perceived competence and control \n – High perceived competence \n – Believes achievement is within own control

\n • Task choice \n – Seeks out challenges and able competitors

\n • Performance conditions \n – Performs well in evaluative conditions

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• The high achiever’s reactions to failure \n – Uses failure as a learning experience \n – Is able to rebound from it

\n • “Every strikeout got me closer to my next \n homerun”. -Babe Ruth

Arousal

a blend of physiological and \n psychological activation, varying in intensity \n along a continuum. \n – High arousal = Increased heart rate, respiratory rate, \n muscle tension, energy, alertness, etc. \n – Can be pleasant or unpleasant

Anxiety

is a negative emotional state involving \n feelings of worry, nervousness, and \n apprehension and associated with activation or \n arousal of the body. \n – Cognitive and somatic \n – Trait and state

Stress

• A substantial imbalance between physical \n and psychological demands placed on an \n individual and the individual’s response \n capability under conditions in which failure \n to meet demands has important \n consequences \n • Has short-term and long-term effects \n – Increased arousal, narrowed focus, anxiety, \n depression, headaches, performance \n changes, etc.

\n Drive theory (Early theory)

as an individual’s arousal \n increases, so too does performance

Social facilitation theory (Early theory)

– the presence of others increases arousal and helps \n performance on well-learned or simple tasks and \n hurts performance on unlearned or complex \n tasks \n • Dominant response elicited by increased arousal \n • But these don’t explain real life well

Control model of facilitative and \n debilitative anxiety

• Viewing anxiety as facilitative (vs. \n debilitative) leads to increased performance \n • Anxiety likely to be viewed as facilitative if \n athlete is high in perceptions of control

Stress mindset experiment

• Participants watched videos describing \n evidence that either \n – Stress is enhancing \n – Stress is debilitating \n • Participants who viewed the stress-is- \n enhancing video reported \n – Changed mindsets about stress \n – Improved psychological symptoms \n – Increased work performance

Why arousal and anxiety influence \n athletic performance

• Affect muscle tension, fatigue, and \n coordination \n • Cause changes in attention, concentration, \n and visual search \n – High arousal/anxiety lead to: \n • Attending to inappropriate cues (e.g., worrying \n about worrying, becoming overly self-conscious) \n • Narrowing of attention

Injuries

• Both a cause and consequence of stress \n – And stress can also slow recovery \n • Mostly caused by physical factors, but \n psychological factors also play a role \n – People with high levels of life stress have \n more sport- and exercise-related injuries \n • Especially for athletes with few coping skills and \n low social support \n

Why does stress lead to injuries?

• High stress can lead to: \n – Increased muscle tension that interferes with \n coordination \n – Attentional disruption \n • Reduced peripheral attention \n • Distraction and task-irrelevant thoughts

Conversion disorder

\n Sensory or motor symptoms without a \n physiological cause \n • Source is psychological (e.g., anxiety) \n • Symptoms appear with the onset of a stressful \n situation \n • The patient is not faking \n • Very rare \n • Examples in sports: \n – Track athlete began fainting during competition \n – High school football player became blind

Home-field advantage

• Possibly due to increased arousal and \n motivation from supportive home crowd \n • It exists during the regular season \n • But there might not be one during the \n playoffs

Evaluations a quantitative \n research study

• How many participants were there? \n • Construct validity: Do the manipulations \n and measures seem okay? \n • Internal validity: Is there evidence for \n causality? Are there alternative \n explanations for the results? \n • External validity: To whom will the results \n generalize? \n

Psychological skills training (PST)

• The systematic and consistent practice of \n mental or psychological skills \n • Goals of PST: \n – Enhancing performance \n – Increasing enjoyment \n – Achieving greater self-satisfaction

Why is PST important?

• Physical and mental components to sport \n • Psychological factors account primarily for \n day-to-day fluctuations in performance \n • Learn to develop “mental toughness” \n – An athlete’s ability to focus, rebound from \n failure, cope with pressure, and persist in the \n face of adversity

Importance of psychological skills

• Research shows that more successful athletes, \n as compared to less successful ones, have: \n – Greater self-regulation of arousal \n – More positive thoughts and images \n – Higher confidence \n – More feelings of being in control \n – More determination and commitment \n – Better concentration and focus \n • How do they get there? Through practice with \n imagery, self-talk, mental plans, goal setting, etc.

How do you perform well in high \n -pressure situations?

• Control your arousal/anxiety (Ch. 13) \n • Prepare yourself with imagery (Ch. 14) \n • Be confident (Ch. 15) \n • Set goals (Ch. 16) \n • Maintain concentration (Ch. 17)

Ch. 13: Dealing with arousal, anxiety, \n and stress

• An optimal level of arousal can lead to peak \n performance \n – Some people need to get pumped up \n – Others need to relax \n • Increase your awareness of your optimal \n arousal \n – Then you can employ arousal regulation \n (reduction, maintenance, induction) strategies \n • And everyone can benefit from learning to \n cope with stress

Techniques to Increase Arousal

• Listen to upbeat music \n • Increase breathing rate \n • Act energized, shout \n • Complete a precompetition workout \n • Use mood words and positive statements \n • Use energizing imagery \n • Set goals \n • Fan support \n • Pep talks

Pep talks

• Coaches and athletes often give pep talks \n – Some are effective and some aren’t

Techniques to reduce arousal and \n anxiety

• Somatic anxiety reduction techniques \n – Progressive relaxation \n – Breath control \n – Biofeedback \n • Cognitive anxiety reduction techniques \n – Relaxation response/meditation \n – Autogenic training \n – Systematic desensitization \n • Multimodal anxiety reduction packages \n – Cognitive-affective stress management training (SMT) \n – Stress inoculation training (SIT) \n – Pressure training \n – Hypnosis

Coping with stress

• “A process of constantly changing cognitive \n and behavioral efforts to manage specific \n external and/or internal demands or \n conflicts appraised as taxing or exceeding \n one’s resources” (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) \n • Coping methods aimed at reducing \n negative effects of stress, such as reduced \n performance, mental distress, and physical \n illness

Coping strategies and styles

• Coping strategies \n – Problem-focused: Efforts to alter or manage \n the problems that are causing stress \n • Example: Practicing in problematic situation \n – Emotion-focused: Efforts to regulate the \n emotional responses to the problems that \n cause stress \n • Example: Meditation \n • Coping styles \n – Approach/Active \n – Avoidance

General advice

• Use problem-focused coping when \n stressful situations can be changed. \n • Use emotion-focused coping when \n situations are not amenable to change. \n • Avoidance coping is okay in the short- \n term, but approach/active coping is better \n in the long-term

• There is no single coping strategy that is \n effective in all situations. \n – Have many coping methods at your disposal. \n • What is effective for one person might not \n be for another.

What is imagery?

• Creating or recreating an experience in \n your mind \n • A form of simulation that involves recalling \n from memory pieces of information stored \n from experience and shaping these pieces \n into meaningful images \n • Equivalent terms: visualization, mental \n rehearsal, symbolic rehearsal, covert \n practice, and mental practice

• Can involve emotions and multiple senses \n – Kinesthetic sense is particularly important for \n athletes \n • Can be used before, during, or after \n practice or competition; outside of \n practice; and for injury rehabilitation \n • Can be used as a way of improving \n physical and psychological skills, as a \n routine, to motivate, to plan, etc.

Does imagery work?

• Most people say yes! \n • Evidence from many sources \n • Anecdotal reports \n – Major James Nesmeth – said to have \n improved his golf score using just imagery for \n 7 years \n – 90% of Olympic athletes reported using \n imagery, and 97% of them believed it helped \n their performance

• Scientific research \n – Imagery shown to be effective in many sports and for \n people with varying ability

Functions of imagery

• Motivational specific \n – Visualizing a specific goal like winning a particular competition \n • Motivational general–mastery \n – Imaging being mentally tough \n • Motivational general–arousal \n – Visualizing relaxation or being psyched up \n • Cognitive specific \n – Imaging specific motor skills to get a feel for the movement and improve the skill level \n • Cognitive general \n – Rehearsing entire game plans, strategies of play, and routines

Imagery perspective

• Internal perspective \n – Visualizing the execution of a skill from your own \n vantage point \n – Perhaps easier to bring in the kinesthetic sense \n • External perspective \n – Visualizing yourself from the perspective of an outside \n observer \n – Perhaps easier to view technique and form \n • Athletes use both types \n – Both types probably effective

When imagery is most effective

• Used for tasks with a large cognitive \n component (e.g., decision making, \n perception, planning) \n • Used by experienced performers \n • Individuals have higher vividness and \n controllability of images \n • Used in addition to physical practice

When imagery can go wrong

• Imagining failures and mistakes \n – Controllability of imagery is important \n • Trying not to picture something bad \n – Makes it more likely you will picture it \n • Makes athletes overconfident (or \n underprepared) \n • Directs attention to irrelevant factors \n • Too much anxiety created

Some explanations for how \n imagery works

• Psychoneuromuscular theory \n – Imagined events innervate muscles and help \n strengthen neural pathways \n • Symbolic learning theory \n – Imagery functions as a coding system (mental \n blueprints) and helps people plan \n • Psychological explanations \n – Imagery helps us get to an optimal level of arousal \n and develop psychological skills

Designing an imagery program

• PETTLEP imagery (7 important elements) \n – Physical \n – Environment \n – Task \n – Timing \n – Learning \n – Emotion \n – Perspective \n • Imagery might work better when it is done in \n conjunction with certain real cues. \n • Note: The same image might mean different \n things to different people.

Self-confidence

• The belief that you can successfully \n perform a desired behavior \n • Can be both a trait and state

Benefits of self-confidence

• Arouses positive emotions \\n • Facilitates concentration \\n • Affects the setting and pursuit of challenging \\n goals \\n • Increases effort and persistence \\n • Affects game strategies (“play to win” versus \\n “play not to lose”) \\n • Affects psychological momentum \\n • Affects performance

Alternative views

• Not everyone agrees with the inverted-U \n on the previous slide \n – A little self-doubt can be motivating \n • Signals that practice is needed \n – And overconfidence doesn’t always lead to \n worse performance

Different views of overconfidence

• Being more confident than abilities warrant causes a \n performance decline (textbook) \n • Ideal to be a little more confident than abilities warrant; \n overconfidence is a posthoc explanation for failure \n (Bandura, 1997) \n • There is no such thing as being overconfident, just being \n underprepared (John Eliot) \n • Mixed research results on how overconfidence relates to \n performance, motivation, emotions, and likability in a \n variety of domains (e.g., sports and business)

Self-expectations and performance

• Our expectations can affect our performance

Expectations of others

• One person’s expectations can affect \n another person’s behavior

How do coaches’ expectations \n affect athletes’ performances?

• Step 1: Coaches form expectations based \n on: \n – Person cues (e.g., gender, race, age, body \n size) \n – Performance information (e.g., skill tests, \n practice behaviors)

• Step 2: Coaches’ expectations influence \n their behavior with regard to the: \n – Frequency and quality of coach–athlete \n interactions \n – Quantity and quality of instruction \n – Type and frequency of feedback

• Step 3: Coaches’ behaviors affect athletes’ \n performances. \n • Low-expectancy athletes perform more \n poorly because of: \n – Less reinforcement \n – Less playing time \n – Less confidence \n – Attributions to low ability

• Step 4: Athlete’s performance confirms the \n expectancy. \n – Self-fulfilling prophecy

Expectations of others

• Can also come from fans, the media, \n statistics, teammates, etc.

Sources of self-efficacy

• Performance accomplishments \n – Most dependable source of self-efficacy \n beliefs \n – Successful experiences  higher self-efficacy \n – Failures  lower self-efficacy \n • Vicarious experiences \n – Seeing others (modeling) influences efficacy \n – Example: running a mile in under 4 minutes

• Verbal persuasion from self or other \n – Positive talk  higher self-efficacy \n • Use of imagery \n – Visualize success  higher self-efficacy \n • Physiological states and arousal \n – If viewed as facilitative  higher self-efficacy \n • Emotional states \n – Positive states  higher self-efficacy

Collective efficacy

• Belief in the capabilities of the team \n • More strongly related to team performance \n on interdependent tasks than the sum of \n individual self-efficacy beliefs \n

Psychological momentum

• “A positive or negative change in \n cognition, affect, physiology, and behavior \n caused by an event or series of events \n that will result in a commensurate shift in \n performance and competitive outcome.” (Taylor & Demick, 1994) \n • Debate about how it operates and if it \n exists

Effectiveness of goal setting

• Very effective for improving performance \n when done right \n • 80% of reviewed sport and exercise studies \n showed moderate to strong effects

Principles of goal setting

• Follow guidelines on the following slides \n • But know that it is also an art \n – Different goals work for different people \n • Consider personality and individual differences \n – Consider what the task is \n • Specific goals might improve performance more on \n low-complexity tasks than on high-complexity tasks \n (Burton, 1989)

Set specific goals

• Specific, measurable, observable goals are \n better than general “do-your-best” goals \n – General: Become better golfer \n – Specific: Lower golf handicap by three shots \n (by chipping a bucket of balls onto a practice \n green three times a week)

Set moderately difficult goals

• Shown to lead to best performance (Kyllo & \n Landers, 1995) \n • Ideal goal: difficult enough to be a \n challenge but realistic enough to be \n achieved

Develop goal achievement \n strategies

• Strategies include \n – How much you will do \n – How often you will do it \n • Have a reasonable timeline \n – Not too short  this is discouraging \n – Not too long  people tend to use the whole \n time to work on the goal \n • Make them flexible

SMARTS goals

• Specific \n • Measurable \n • Action-oriented \n • Realistic \n • Timely

• Self-determined

Set long- and short-term goals

• Set progressively harder short-term goals \n to eventually reach a long-term objective \n – Use a goal-setting staircase

Set outcome, performance, and process goals

• Definitions

– Outcome goals relate to a competitive result

– Performance goals relate to achieving standards or objectives independently of other competitors

– Process goals relate to the actions an individual must engage in during performance to execute or perform well

• Advice

– Don’t overemphasize outcome goals

– Combine an outcome goal with several process or performance goals for the best performance

Set individual and team goals

• Team goals \n – Can be better for the team’s overall \n performance \n – Don’t have to be only outcome goals

Record goals

• Write down goals and place them where \n you will see them \n • Recording goals enables you to: \n – Remember them \n – Monitor your progress

Need goal commitment

• Goals should be internalized \n • Usually good for athletes set their own \n goals or participate in the goal-setting \n process \n – But could be better for someone else to set a \n goal on an unfamiliar task

Have goal support

• Goal achievement more likely if significant \n others are on the same page \n – Can educate others about importance of \n performance and process goals \n • Spousal support important for exercise \n adherence

Have opportunities for \n evaluation and feedback

• Possibilities \n – Record progress \n – Get feedback from coach \n – Videotape practices/competitions \n • Good for process goals \n • And adjust goals if necessary

Potential issues with goals

• If they are too easy: \n – People see goals as a ceiling, not floor \n • If they are too hard: \n – People engage in risky behavior \n – People engage in unethical behavior \n – Failure to meet goals leads to reduced self-efficacy \n • If they are too specific/limited: \n – People might ignore other important things \n • If there are too many of them: \n – Can get overwhelming \n

Concentration

• Also called attention \n • The mental effort placed on sensory or \n mental events \n • A person’s ability to exert deliberate \n mental effort on what is most important in \n a given situation

Components of concentration

• Focusing on relevant environmental cues \n (selective attention) \n – Selecting what cues to attend to and disregard \n • Maintaining attentional focus \n • Situation awareness \n – The ability to understand what is going on \n around oneself (to size up a situation) \n • Shifting attentional focus when necessary

Dimensions of attentional focus

• Width \n – Broad \n – Narrow \n • Direction \n – External \n – Internal

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Better learning and \n performance on a \n variety of tasks for \n external (on effect of \n movement) vs. \n internal (on body \n movement) focus

The concentration-performance \n relationship

• High-performing athletes: \n – Are absorbed in the present \n – Focus on only the relevant cues \n – Eliminate distractions \n – Automatically execute some movements