The Effects of Anxiety on Motor Performance: A Test of the Conscious Processing Hypothesis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the conscious processing hypothesis as an explanation of the anxiety/performance relationship. The study was designed to identify conscious processing performance effects while controlling for an alternative attentional threshold explanation identified in previous research. Participants completed 60 golf putts. They completed 3 blocks of 10 putts in single task, task-relevant shadowing, and task-irrelevant tone-counting conditions. Each set of 3 × 10 putts was completed in low and high anxiety conditions. Anxiety was elevated using an instructional set. Self-reported effort and spectral analysis of heart rate variability were used to examine the patterning of effort across the different putting conditions. Findings indicated that performance was impaired in the high anxiety shadowing and tone-counting conditions, supporting an attentional threshold interpretation. Spectral analysis of heart rate variability indicated that potential compensatory increases in spectral power in the high frequency band associated with dual-task putting in the low anxiety condition were absent in the high anxiety tone-counting and shadowing putting conditions, partially reflecting the performance findings. No effects were found for self-reported effort. Taken together, the performance and heart rate variability results support an attentional interpretation of the anxiety/motor performance relationship.

Performance Optimization in Sport: A Psychophysiological Approach

“…This rhythm was also studied as a marker of resources allocation during motor programming 32 . Beta oscillation (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30),on the other hand, has a central position in the treatment of sensorimotor information and serves as a functional link between different brain regions such as the pre-motor, motor (M1), and somatosensory (S1) cortex, the supplementary motor area, and the cerebellum 31 . Beta oscillation could play the role of a motor "binding" linking the different commands related to a global gesture as suggested for sensory awareness 30 .…”

“…Mullen and colleagues 24 gave a different explanation of the meaning of HRV. They conducted a study on amateur golfers using a putting task performed with and without a concurrent distracting task.…”

Thoughts and attention of athletes under pressure: skill-focus or performance worries?

“…To date it has repeatedly been shown that adopting such a skill-focus of attention 1 impairs expert performance (e.g., Baumeister, 1984;Beilock & Carr, 2001;Gray, 2004;Gucciardi & Dimmock, 2008;Jackson et al, 2006;Liao & Masters, 2002;Mullen & Hardy, 2000;Mullen, Hardy, & Tattersall, 2005;. Therefore, Beilock and Gray (2007) concluded that there is compelling evidence that in the perceptual-motor domain choking is caused by explicit monitoring or conscious control of the execution of the skill.…”

Competing Under Pressure: State Anxiety, Sports Performance and Assessment

“…Repeated exposure to a stressful competitive situation has also been proposed to teach the athlete not only how to perform the skill properly but also how to execute it under pressure (Pijpers et al, 2003). Mullen, Hardy and Tattersall (2005) failed to find support for the conscious processing hypothesis, but suggested that multiple mechanisms, including both conscious processes and distraction effects, might affect performance in a complementary manner depending on the nature of the task.…”