Anxiety and perceptual-motor performance: toward an integrated model of concepts, mechanisms, and processes

“Our own approach to perceptual-motor behavior can be considered embodied (e.g., Beilock, 2008b; Proffitt, 2006; Wilson, 2002), and ultimately has its origins in ecological psychology (Gibson, 1979).”

“…et al., 2007)—but also affects interpretational processes (Bishop, 2007; Blanchette & Richards, 2010) and facilitates emotion-specific behavioral responses (Frijda, 1988; Zajonc, 1980; see also Krieglmeyer et al., 2010, 2011; Lavender & Hommel, 2007; Schutter et al., 2008; Stins et al., 2011).”

“How extra mental effort may help to maintain performance under anxiety Besides affecting performance negatively, anxiety also serves a motivational function that enables people to try and maintain performance through increases in mental effort (Eysenck & Calvo, 1992; Eysenck et al., 2007).”

“However, although such attempts can be very successful, a potential caveat is that trying hard not to attend (or respond) to something may ironically draw more attention towards it (or make the unwanted response more likely; Wegner, 1994).”

“Although there is no direct evidence yet, execution focus models claim that this is also what happens under anxiety (e.g., Beilock & Carr, 2001; Masters, 1992).”

“Although there is no direct evidence yet, execution focus models claim that this is also what happens under anxiety (e.g., Beilock & Carr, 2001; Masters, 1992).”

“…has been written about the effects of anxiety on cognitive functioning (e.g., taking an important exam; Eysenck, 1992; Mathews, 1990; Sarason, 1988; Wine, 1971), thereby revealing several mechanisms that explain how anxiety influences cognitive performance (see Beilock, 2008a; Bishop, 2007;…”

“As such, by affecting how people perceive or interpret their environment (Bishop, 2007; Mathews & Mackintosh, 1998; Proffitt, 2006), anxiety may seriously alter the selection of action possibilities (e.g., shoot or don’t shoot).”

“In perceptual-motor tasks, expert skill execution is often highly automatized, and requires a more ‘‘external’’, goaloriented focus in order to attain the best possible performance (e.g., Beilock et al., 2002).”

“In past decades, much has been written about the effects of anxiety on cognitive functioning (e.g., taking an important exam; Eysenck, 1992; Mathews, 1990; Sarason, 1988; Wine, 1971), thereby revealing several mechanisms that explain how anxiety influences cognitive performance (see Beilock, 2008a;…”

“…threatening or not threatening), anxiety makes the selection of a threat-related interpretation more likely, potentially because it strengthens the output of our threat-evaluation mechanism and inhibits the influence of pre-frontal control mechanisms (Bishop, 2007; Mathews & Mackintosh, 1998).”

“Based on our perceptual-motor perspective (i.e., perception, selection, action), however, we propose that this imbalance not only affects attentional control—in a sense that one becomes biased toward threat-related information (Eysenck et al., 2007)—but also affects interpretational processes (Bishop, 2007; Blanchette…”

“…decades, much has been written about the effects of anxiety on cognitive functioning (e.g., taking an important exam; Eysenck, 1992; Mathews, 1990; Sarason, 1988; Wine, 1971), thereby revealing several mechanisms that explain how anxiety influences cognitive performance (see Beilock, 2008a;…”

“At present, little is known about the effectiveness of different strategies that individuals may use (Nicholls & Polman, 2007).”

“That is, when expert performers are asked to explicitly focus on their movement execution, this consistently leads to a degradation of performance (e.g., Gray, 2004; Gucciardi and Dimmock, 2008; Lam et al., 2009).”

“Because vision is often used to inform action (e.g., Land, 2009), the mere fact that one looks at task-irrelevant (threat-related) sources of information under anxiety, may already be enough for movements to deviate in that direction.”

“…reduced under anxiety, which allows less time to fine-tune movements on the basis of visual information, and causes a considerable decrease in performance (e.g., Behan & Wilson, 2008; Causer et al., 2011; Nieuwenhuys & Oudejans, 2010, 2011; Vickers & Williams, 2007; Wilson, Vine, et al., 2009).”

“…decades, much has been written about the effects of anxiety on cognitive functioning (e.g., taking an important exam; Eysenck, 1992; Mathews, 1990; Sarason, 1988; Wine, 1971), thereby revealing several mechanisms that explain how anxiety influences cognitive performance (see Beilock, 2008a;…”

“Our own approach to perceptual-motor behavior can be considered embodied (e.g., Beilock, 2008b; Proffitt, 2006; Wilson, 2002), and ultimately has its origins in ecological psychology (Gibson, 1979).”

“For instance, in a recent experiment, Nieuwenhuys and Oudejans (2011) showed that when police officers executed a shooting exercise against a threatening opponent that shot back with colored-soap cartridges (high-anxiety), they executed more and longer fixations to the head and gun of the opponent…”

“That is, they are more easily distracted by task-irrelevant information and, in general, execute more fixations of shorter duration (see Janelle, 2002, for an overview).”

“…of anxiety, people’s movements may become less accurate, and they may need more attempts or more time to successfully perform a certain task (e.g., Behan & Wilson, 2008; Causer, Holmes, Smith, & Williams, 2011; Nieuwenhuys, Pijpers, Oudejans, & Bakker, 2008; Nieuwenhuys & Oudejans, 2011; Vickers…”

“That is, when expert performers are asked to explicitly focus on their movement execution, this consistently leads to a degradation of performance (e.g., Gray, 2004; Gucciardi and Dimmock, 2008; Lam et al., 2009).”

“Alternatively, Nieuwenhuys and Oudejans (2011) showed that merely getting used to the pressure and anxiety that accompanies performance, may exert a similar positive effect on visual attentional processes (see also Oudejans, 2008; Oudejans & Pijpers, 2009, 2010).”

“…reduced under anxiety, which allows less time to fine-tune movements on the basis of visual information, and causes a considerable decrease in performance (e.g., Behan & Wilson, 2008; Causer et al., 2011; Nieuwenhuys & Oudejans, 2010, 2011; Vickers & Williams, 2007; Wilson, Vine, et al., 2009).”

“In a more recent experiment, Nieuwenhuys, Savelsbergh, and Oudejans (2011) measured police officers’ gaze behavior during the execution of a shooting task (i.e., shoot or don’t shoot) and specifically tested whether effects of anxiety on decision-making may be attributed either to changes in gaze…”

“As such, by affecting how people perceive or interpret their environment (Bishop, 2007; Mathews & Mackintosh, 1998; Proffitt, 2006), anxiety may seriously alter the selection of action possibilities (e.g., shoot or don’t shoot).”

“…the stimulus), whereas negative stimuli tend to facilitate avoidance movements (e.g., moving away from the stimulus; Krieglmeyer, Deutsch, De Houwer, & De Raedt, 2010; Krieglmeyer, De Houwer, & Deutsch, 2011; Lavender & Hommel, 2007; Stins, Roelofs, Villan, Kooijman, Hagenaars, & Beek, 2011).”

“That is, when expert performers are asked to explicitly focus on their movement execution, this consistently leads to a degradation of performance (e.g., Gray, 2004; Gucciardi and Dimmock, 2008; Lam et al., 2009).”

“For instance, a talented musician, who is anxious before an important concert, may use breathing techniques or imagery to calm down before she gets on stage (e.g., Gould & Udry, 1994).”

“While there are many different kinds of emotions, the present paper focuses on state anxiety, which, according to Schwenkmezger and Steffgen (1989), ‘‘can be regarded as a broad concept for a number of very complex emotional and motivational states and processes that occur as a result of threat.”

“That is, while paying explicit attention to movement execution is important and task-relevant in the early phases of motor learning (e.g., Bernstein, 1996; Whiting, 1984), this is no longer the case for experts.”

“…as being higher than individuals who are not afraid of heights (e.g., Teachman et al., 2008), and police officers who are afraid to get shot are more prone to recognize a suspect’s weapon, even when there is none (e.g., Correll et al., 2002; Nieuwenhuys, Savelsbergh, et al., 2011; Payne, 2001).”

“Based on this overview, we will now return to the two competing models of anxiety and perceptual-motor performance: distraction models (e.g., Wilson, 2008) and execution focus models (e.g., Beilock & Carr, 2001; Masters, 1992)—shortly reiterate their distinctive hypotheses, and discuss the extent…”

“Similarly, on a behavioral level, many studies have looked at the relationship between anxiety and perceptual-motor performance (e.g., taking a decisive penalty during a world-championship final; see Hardy, 1996; Spence & Spence, 1966; Yerkes & Dodson, 1908).”

“For example, individuals who tend to be action oriented are more likely to reinforce goal-directed attention, whereas individuals that are state oriented are more likely to concentrate on their feelings of anxiety (e.g., Jostmann & Koole, 2007).”

“For example, one has to attend to the proper information in order to successfully calibrate and adjust movements in relation to a target (e.g., in catching a fly-ball; Jacobs, Runeson, & Michaels, 2001; Oudejans, Michaels, Bakker, & Davids, 1999; Withagen & Michaels, 2005).”

“Instead, ‘‘worries’’ represented over 25% of the data, suggesting that at least with respect to the attentional focus of athletes, circumstances of pressure and anxiety more often lead to distraction than explicit attention to movement execution (see Gucciardi et al., 2010, for similar results).”

“…that rather than explicitly focusing on movement execution, all kinds of distracting thoughts and worries occur naturally when people perform under pressure (e.g., Gucciardi, Longbottom, Jackson & Dimmock, 2010; Hatzigeorgiadis & Biddle, 2000, 2001; Oudejans et al., 2011; Wilson & Smith, 2007).”

“Sometimes, emotions can be so strong that they seem to alter the way in which we perceive and act upon the world around us (cf., Oudejans & Nieuwenhuys, 2009; Proffitt, 2006).”

“These changes in muscle activity promoted changes in movement execution, in the sense that movements became slower, less fluent, and were more rigid under anxiety, leading to consequent decreases in performance (see also Beuter & Duda, 1985; Yoshie, Kudo, Murakoshi, & Ohtsuki, 2009).”

“For instance, when individuals listen to a voice recording and are asked whether they heard the word ‘die’ or ‘dye’, anxious individuals more often report that they heard the word ‘die’ (e.g., Calvo & Castillo, 2001).”

“…that rather than explicitly focusing on movement execution, all kinds of distracting thoughts and worries occur naturally when people perform under pressure (e.g., Gucciardi, Longbottom, Jackson & Dimmock, 2010; Hatzigeorgiadis & Biddle, 2000, 2001; Oudejans et al., 2011; Wilson & Smith, 2007).”

“Alternatively, Nieuwenhuys and Oudejans (2011) showed that merely getting used to the pressure and anxiety that accompanies performance, may exert a similar positive effect on visual attentional processes (see also Oudejans, 2008; Oudejans & Pijpers, 2009, 2010).”

“In addition, in other contexts (e.g., taking a penalty kick in soccer) it has been shown that threat-related stimuli (e.g., the goalkeeper) can serve as attractors, and cause movements to deviate in their direction (e.g., Wilson, Wood et al., 2009; Binsch et al., 2010).”

“Alternatively, Nieuwenhuys and Oudejans (2011) showed that merely getting used to the pressure and anxiety that accompanies performance, may exert a similar positive effect on visual attentional processes (see also Oudejans, 2008; Oudejans & Pijpers, 2009, 2010).”

“Also, several studies have shown that people are more likely to make response errors when performing on emotion-incongruent trials (e.g., moving toward a positive stimulus when the instruction is to move away from this type of stimulus; Krieglmeyer et al., 2011; Stins et al., 2011).”