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what to glean?
medicalstudent | 3 years ago Reply Link me
what to glean?
Psychon Bull Rev. 2006 Dec;13(6):1005-10.Click here to read Links
Choking under pressure and working memory capacity: when performance pressure reduces fluid intelligence.
Gimmig D, Huguet P, Caverni JP, Cury F.

CNRS and University of Aix-Marseille 1, Marseille, France.

Recent findings (Beilock & Carr, 2005) have demonstrated that only individuals with a high working memory capacity (WMC) "choke under pressure" on math problems with high working memory demands. This suggests that performance pressure hinders those who are the most qualified to succeed, because it consumes the WMC they usually rely on to achieve superior performance. This puts into question the use of performance in high-pressure situations as a means of distinguishing individuals with lesser or greater WMC potentials. While addressing several limitations of past research, we offer evidence that such choking (1) occurs only in individuals with high WMC, because of their anxiety-ridden perceptions of high-stakes situations, and (2) is not confined to tasks involving acquired skills and knowledge, but encompasses fluid reasoning abilities or intelligence (Gf). These findings have strong implications for assessments of people's intellectual capacities in academic, clinical, work, and research settings.
medicalstudent | 3 years ago Reply
cant get the full text; i want to pick this paper apart
medicalstudent | 3 years ago Reply
The Beilock & Carr study seems to be public.
cognitivefun | 3 years ago Reply
I think I've read something to this effect before: the gist was that the more intelligent someone is, the more likely they are to be able not only to think about the matter at hand, but also 'think about thinking about it' - which latter activity serves to distract them from the former.

This may not apply when the task is consistently maximally demanding on one's attention, as there is no 'room' for thinking about other things.
cevapcici | 3 years ago Reply
i want to know the definition of "pressure"
medicalstudent | 3 years ago Reply
Gimmig, Huguet, Caverni, and Cury: "we induced pressure simply by characterizing the [Raven's Stanard Progressive Matrices] as diagnostic or nondiagnostic of analytic reasoning."
cognitivefun | 3 years ago Reply
Interestingly, this paper seems to be out in the wild as well!
cognitivefun | 3 years ago Reply
Beilock & Carr used monetary incentives and peer pressure. 1. Participants were told that they would receive reward if they improved their performance; 2. Pairing participants with a partner, saying that reward is contingent upon both partners improving; 3. One participant in the team is told that the other partner already completed the task, and had improved, such that the reward outcome depends completely on the current participant's performance.
cognitivefun | 3 years ago Reply
I possibly observed a similar effect in a mental arithmetic test I gave my class. By offering low performers a reward for improved performance and high performers the same reward for sustained performance, I successfully raised the former up significantly whilst depressing the latter pupils' scores.
cevapcici | 3 years ago Reply
Horrifying!
? | 3 years ago Reply

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