Choking under experimenter's presence: impact on proactive control and practical consequences for psychological science

authors

• Belletier Clément
• Normand Alice
• Camos Valérie
• Barrouillet Pierre
• Huguet Pascal

keywords

• Social facilitation
• Choking
• Experimenter presence
• Working-memory
• Proactive control

document type

abstract

Evidence accumulated for more than a century on audience effects shows that being watched by others typically impairs performance on difficult tasks. However, recent research under the label of « choking under pressure » suggests that this performance impairment is, ironically, specific to the individuals who are the most qualified to succeed—those with a high working memory capacity (WMC). Here, we predicted and found that being watched by evaluative others such as the experimenter undermines proactive control on which the high-WMC individuals rely the more. These results refine our understanding of both audience and choking effects, and lead to innovative, practical recommendations for psychological science.

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