Choking under pressure: Illuminating the role of distraction and self-focus

Abstract

Two dominant explanations of choking under pressure–self-focus and distraction–have been enduringly presented as competing mechanisms of motor skill failure under performance stress. Dual-task experiments designed to simultaneously assess both mechanisms have often favoured self-focus, whereas qualitative research and examinations of gaze behaviour suggest that distraction plays a role. Though both mechanisms remain plausible, several reviews of the choking literature have side-stepped how autonomous motor skill failure would play out under a distraction-based model or a dual-mechanism model. In this discussion, we contend that persistent experimental focus on the brief moments of motor exec..