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Sport Psychology (PSY407)

LESSON 12

ATTENTION AND CONCENTRATION IN SPORT

According to William James (1890), attention is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of

one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. It Implies withdrawal from

some things in order to deal effectively with others. In sport, nothing can be more important than paying

attention to the object at hand. Sport psychologists have recognized the importance of attention, and that it can

be very complex. This topic consists of ten important concepts; first five will be discussed in this lecture, and

the remaining in lecture thirteen.

Important concepts include the following:

Information processing

Memory systems

Measuring information

Selective attention

Information processing capacity

Attentional narrowing

Being in the zone

Measuring attentional focus

Attention control training

10.

Associative versus dissociative attentional styles.

Information Processing

There are two basic approaches to explaining behavior. The first and probably better understood is the

behavioral, or stimulus-response approach. In this way of looking at things, the world is explained through a

series of stimulus-response (S-R) connections. With animals this approach has been extremely successful, but

for human beings it seems too simplistic. There seems to be more to human behavior than the simple act of

strengthening the bond between a stimulus and a response. Certainly, a great deal goes on in the brain between

the time that a stimulus is given and the time that a response in initiated. This notion is accepted by the

cognitive psychologists and is referred to as the information processing model of behavior. The information

processing model contains a stimulus and a response, but a large number of mental operations occur between

the two. For a person to experience a stimulus and respond to at a later time, there must be a memory storage

capacity. That is, the person must have a memory, or place to save important information. Once the

information has been saved, the person must be able to reactivate or retrieve it. Retrieval enables us to use the

information to make decisions about forthcoming responses. This is information processing in action, and it

takes place constantly on the athletic field.

Memory Systems

There are three basic memory systems:

Sensory information store

Short-Term Memory (STM)

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

Sensory Information Store

The first stage in the human memory system, sometimes called sensory register. This storage system is capable

of holding large amounts of sensory information for a brief amount of time before most of it is lost.

Information is thought to remain in the sensory register for up to one-half second before it is either lost or

transferred to a more permanent storage system.

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Sport Psychology (PSY407)

Short-Term Memory (STM)

The short term memory (STM) is the center, or crossroads, of activity in the information processing

system. Information comes into STM for rehearsal from both sensory store and permanent memory.

Information that comes into STM from the sensory store is often new or original information. If we do

not rehearse and memorize it quickly, we will likely forget it. For example, when one gets a new

telephone number, he tends to repeat it several times to remember it. The quality of rehearsal

determines whether or not information in STM is passed on to long-term memory. The absolute

capacity of short-term memory is relatively limited, for example, it would be difficult for an average

person to retain more than seven separate words or numbers in STM at one time.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

Whereas information in short-term memory is present for only a brief period of time, information in

long-term memory (LTM) is relatively permanent. Once information is stored in LTM, it is theoretically

permanent. Information in LTM can be continually upgraded, reorganized, and strengthened. New

information can also be added to LTM.

Measuring Information

Psychologists can measure the amount of information that is conveyed by a particular problem or task.

The amount of information conveyed or transmitted by a particular problem is measured in bits of

information, (short for "binary digit"). The more bits of information conveyed the more difficult the

problem being presented.

There is a clear relationship between an athlete's skill and information conveyed. As skill increases,

information conveyed increase. The more information conveyed by an offensive player, the more

difficult it is going to be for the defensive player to respond. Applying this principle in the game of

cricket, a highly skilled bowler will be conveying more information and making it difficult for the

batsman to respond.

Selective Attention

Selective attention is the ability to gate out, or ignore, irrelevant sensory information, and to pay

attention to relevant information. Each of us has experienced the feeling of over stimulation that can

result in an inability to concentrate. If it were not for our ability to concentrate on one or two relevant

items at a time, we simply could not function. The ability to selectively attend to appropriate stimuli is

critical in most athletic situations. In basketball, an athlete must concentrate on the basket while

shooting a free throw rather than being distracted by the noise from the crowd. In cricket, an athlete

facing the bowler must concentrate on ball instead of being distracted by thoughts of a previous play.

Some athletes are better than others at selectively attending to important cues. This is one difference

between the good athlete and the outstanding athlete.

For highly trained and skilled athletes, the process of selective attention is very efficient. When skilled

basketball players step up to the free throw line, they refuse to allow anyone or anything besides the

task at hand to capture their attention. Coaches refer to this process as "concentration". However,

some athletes never so learn how to cope with distraction. Every little thing distracts them, or they

concentrate on wrong things.

Limited Information Processing Capacity

An alternative approach to studying attention is to view it in terms of information processing capacity,

or space. We have the capacity to attend to more than one thing at a time. For example, a person

driving

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Sport Psychology (PSY407)

a car can listen to music, steer the car, and shift gears all at the same time. If a specific task requires all of the

information processing space, than that specific task is selectively attended to at the expense of all others. If a

specific task does not require all of the available space, then more than one task can be attended to at one time,

depending upon the attentional demands of the second task. this is called the capacity model of selective

attention.

In the capacity model of attention, more than one piece of input can be attended to at one time and more than

one response can be made at one time, if the demands on available space are not too severe.

Wrisberg and Shea (1978) demonstrated through the use of the reaction time probe that the attentional

demands of a motor act decrease as learning increases. In other words as a motor act becomes automatic or

learned, the demands on the limited information processing capacity of the athlete decrease, and the athlete can

attend to other cues. Reaction time probe is a technique used in attention research to determine if a certain

primary task requires information processing space.

An important factor that should be considered is the notion of individual differences (Keele & Hawkins, 1982).

No two individuals are alike in terms of the amount of attention required to deal with more than one task at a

time. Therefore, one should not assume that two athletes possessing an equal amount of playing experience will

perform the same when confronted with a multiple-task problem. One athlete might experience some difficulty

in performing tasks A and B together, but perform task B and C flawlessly. On the other hand, a second athlete

might experience difficulty performing tasks B and C together, but experience no difficulty with tasks A and B

together.

References

Cox, H. Richard. (2002). Sport Psychology: Concepts and Applications. (Fifth Edition). New York: McGraw-

Hill Companies

Lavallec. D., Kremer, J., Moran, A., & Williams. M. (2004) Sports Psychology: Contemporary Themes. New

York: Palgrave Macmillan Publishers