Volume 5, Issue 4, December 2016, Pages 470–477
Working Memory in the Wild: Applied Research in Working Memory
Highlights
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- High pressure settings compromise working memory and decrease cognitive performance.
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- Those with higher working memory show greatest pressure-induced cognitive deficits.
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- Attentional control alters relation of working memory to performance under pressure.
Previous
research has shown that the higher one's working memory capacity, the
more likely his/her performance is to be negatively impacted by
performance pressure. In the current research we examined potential
explanations for this finding by assessing the relation between
pressure-induced performance deficits (i.e. “choking under pressure”) in
math-based problem solving and individual differences in both working
memory (as assessed via complex span tasks) and attentional control (as
assessed via two measures from an Eriksen Flanker task). We find higher
working memory only relates to “choking under pressure” when individuals
were low in attentional control. These results further elucidate the
mechanism by which high-pressure scenarios can lead to errors in
performance and carry implications for developing effective intervention
strategies to prevent poor performance in high-stakes situations.
