Attentional control practice questions.

A rugby fly-half scans the whole defensive line to pick the best attacking option in the seconds before the ball reaches him. Which attentional style in Nideffer's model is he using?

• Narrow external
• Broad internal
• Broad external
• Narrow internal

Answer: Broad external

The focus is wide because many cues are taken in and external because they lie outside the performer; a broad internal focus would be planning the move in his head, and a narrow external focus would be fixing on the ball alone.

A novice climber's arousal rises from moderate to very high on an exposed section. What does cue utilisation theory predict about the cues she uses?

• Her attentional field widens, so more information is used
• Cue use is unaffected because attention has a fixed capacity
• Only irrelevant cues are excluded, so performance improves
• Relevant cues are excluded as well as irrelevant ones

Answer: Relevant cues are excluded as well as irrelevant ones

Cue utilisation states that the range of cues narrows as arousal rises: up to a moderate level this helps because irrelevant cues drop out, but beyond it relevant cues such as the next hold are lost too and errors follow.

A golfer who has putted automatically for years begins to monitor her stroke consciously in the final round and misses short putts. Which account of choking does this illustrate?

• Distraction by task-irrelevant worries
• Conscious processing (reinvestment)
• A permanent loss of the motor programme
• A fall in muscular strength over the round

Answer: Conscious processing (reinvestment)

Conscious processing explains choking as a return to step-by-step control of a skill that normally runs automatically, whereas distraction accounts blame attention drawn away by worries; the motor programme itself is not lost, as the next practice round shows.

A long jumper is coached either to concentrate on driving her knees or on the take-off board and the flight path ahead. Which prediction does research on focus of attention support?

• The external focus gives the more effective jump
• The internal focus produces the more effective jump
• Neither focus changes the outcome of the movement
• Both foci reduce automaticity to the same degree

Answer: The external focus gives the more effective jump

An external focus on the effect of the movement (the board and the flight path) leaves control automatic, while an internal focus on her own knees invites conscious monitoring that constrains the movement, as the constrained action hypothesis predicts. The external-focus advantage has been reported for novices as well as skilled performers.

What does cue utilisation theory predict about a player whose arousal is unusually low during a warm-up match?

• Attention narrows so far that relevant cues are lost
• The attentional field is too broad, so irrelevant cues are admitted
• Attention is confined entirely to her own internal bodily sensations
• The attentional field is optimal, as at moderate arousal

Answer: The attentional field is too broad, so irrelevant cues are admitted

The theory describes a progressive narrowing of the attentional field as arousal rises, so at low arousal the field is too wide and irrelevant information is taken in alongside the relevant. Narrowing is therefore helpful up to a point, and only becomes damaging when relevant cues start to be excluded as well.

A basketball player misses several free throws in a hostile away arena and afterwards says she could not stop hearing the crowd. Which account of choking does this fit?

• The distraction account, because capacity was taken by irrelevant cues
• The self-focus account, because she was monitoring her own technique closely
• The catastrophe model, because arousal exceeded a threshold
• The drive theory account, because habit strength was low

Answer: The distraction account, because capacity was taken by irrelevant cues

The distraction account holds that pressure diverts limited attentional capacity onto cues irrelevant to the task, leaving too little for the skill itself. The self-focus account describes the opposite failure, in which attention turns inwards onto the mechanics of an automatic skill and disrupts it, and the two are distinguished by what the performer reports attending to.