| This work explored the cognitive mechanisms underlying pressure-induced performance decrements. Performance pressure is defined as an anxious desire to perform at a high level (Hardy, Mullen, & Jones, 1996). Choking, or performing more poorly than expected given one's level of skill, tends to occur in situations fraught with performance pressure (Baumeister, 1984; Beilock & Carr, 2001; Lewis & Linder, 1997).; Self-focus or explicit monitoring theories of choking suggest that pressure-induced performance decrements result from the explicit monitoring and control of proceduralized knowledge that is best run off as an uninterrupted and unanalyzed structure (Baumeister, 1984; Beilock & Carr, 2001; Lewis & Linder, 1997; Masters, 1992). Conversely, distraction theories propose that pressure creates a dual-task situation in which skill execution and performance worries vie for the attentional capacity once devoted solely to primary task performance (Lewis & Linder, 1997; Wine, 1971).; To date, explicit monitoring theories have accounted quite well for the choking phenomenon (see Appendix A and B). However, the extant choking literature has solely utilized sensorimotor skills as a test bed. Well-learned, proceduralized sensorimotor skills do not possess the right task control structures to choke according to distraction theories (Allport, Antonis, & Reynolds, 1972). Furthermore, unpracticed sensorimotor skills, although based, in part, on explicitly accessible declarative knowledge (Beilock, Wierenga, and Carr, 2002), may not demand the type of processing and information storage that make a task susceptible to choking via distraction. Indeed, novice sensorimotor skills do not appear to be negatively impacted by performance pressure at all (Beilock & Carr, 2001). It remains an open possibility then, that choking may occur via the mechanisms proposed by distraction theories in certain tasks—for example, complex cognitive tasks not based on an automated or proceduralized skill representation.; Four experiments examined performance under pressure in the mathematical problem solving task of modular arithmetic (MA). Exp. 1 demonstrated that performance decrements in difficult, unpracticed MA problems occurred under high pressure conditions. Exp. 2 demonstrated that these pressure-induced failures only occurred for the most difficult and capacity demanding unpracticed equations. Exp. 3 further explored these performance failures both early and late in learning. Similar to Exp. 2, only difficult problems with large on-line working memory demands choked. Furthermore, these failures were limited to problems early in practice when capacity-demanding rule-based solution algorithms governed performance. In Exp. 4, participants performed MA problems once, twice, or 50 times each, followed by a high pressure test. Again, only difficult problems that had not been highly practiced showed performance decrements.; These findings support distraction theories of choking in the domain of mathematical problem solving. This outcome contrasts with sensorimotor skills, such as golf putting, in which the data have uniformly supported explicit monitoring rather than distraction theories (Beilock & Carr, 2001; Lewis & Linder, 1997). This contrast suggests a taxonomy of skills based on the nature and representation of their control structures. |
