Brain Science Podcast discussion

Psychologist Sian Beilock runs the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Chicago. Her book Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To will be helpful to anyone who has ever succumbed to the pressure of a big test or failed in sports.

I will post my interview with her tomorrow.

Here is a link to the show notes for Dr. Beilock's interview:

http://www.brainsciencepodcast.com/bs...

If you would like to get show notes automatically each month please sign up for the Brain Science Podcast newsletter.

Thank you for the newsletter information on choking. I look forward to reading the book.

I had read recently in an article by Malcolm Gladwell, 'The Art of Failure' in his book, 'What the Dog Saw' about choking.
Gladwell posed the question, '...are all forms of failure equal?'

choking is a very specific kind of failure that is a left brain function that results from focus on being overly concerned and overly careful, being over-prepared, from thinking too much. Choking is loss of instinct - it is conscious learning that is explicit, is counter-intuitive and outside of awareness; choking is paradoxical failure. It is failure in something you're good at. So poor performance in this situation does not reflect the innate ability of the performer - sometimes a poor test score is the sign not of a poor student, but of a good one. This is more about the situation of the performance rather than the ability of the performer.

panic is a right brain function of a type of failure that results from being under-prepared and unaware - from thinking too little; it is implicit, unconscious learning, perhaps repetitive and/or intuitive in nature. Panic is reversion to instinct and it causes perceptual narrowing. Panic is a conventional failure.

It is my belief that both end up looking like paralysis which may also look a little like terror and with repetitive experience, each can feel like PTSD.

Maureen wrote: "Thank you for the newsletter information on choking. I look forward to reading the book.

I had read recently in an article by Malcolm Gladwell, 'The Art of Failure' in his book, 'What the Dog Saw'..."

Actually Dr. Beilock's take on "choking" is more nuanced than Gladwell's. First of all she makes not left brain/right brain claims, which as far as I know are not backed up by experimental data. She does relate some findings regarding the frontal lobes and their connections to the rest of the brain.

We discuss this in our interview (and it is in her book) along with the distinction between what happens when someone "chokes" during an intellectual activity (like taking a big test) compared to what happens when performing a well-learned physical task (like in sports). Neither of these situations has any necessary relationship with panic, but in the case of an intellectual task there is a failure of working memory (we talked about why), in contrast to the sports scenario where one "thinks too much" trying to control a physical action that should be automatic.

Maureen wrote: "Thank you for the newsletter information on choking. I look forward to reading the book.

I had read recently in an article by Malcolm Gladwell, 'The Art of Failure' in his book, 'What the Dog Saw'..."


Ginger - thank you for the further clarification of choking via Dr. Beilock. The panic vs choking material was a comparison of two types of 'failure' and was not meant to imply that panic was a type of choking. He also uses both tests and sports analogies in his article to present choking concepts.

One author is a journalistic writer who piqued my interest in choking and the other is a researcher and psychologist. I wouldn't expect them to write for the same audience. Because of Gladwell's piece I was primed to be interested in the work of Dr. Beilock. I plan to read the interview to further my understanding of choking as it is common among my academic clients.

Maureen wrote: "Maureen wrote: "Thank you for the newsletter information on choking. I look forward to reading the book.

I had read recently in an article by Malcolm Gladwell, 'The Art of Failure' in his book, 'W..."

I think you will find the chapters about academic performance most relevant to your academic clients.

I'm interested to know whether anyone interested in this subject has read any of the Inner Game books by Timothy Gallwey (in collaboration, in some cases, with others, such as Barry Green's The Inner Game of Music, which has been a reference book for me for over 20 years!).

While the books long predate all (probably) of the neurological research performed and cited by Dr. Beilock, many of the techniques that Gallwey, Green and others found - with empirical methods only - to combat choking (though they rarely referred to it as that). Much of the BSP interview with Dr. Beilock reminded me of these books, particularly the concrete suggestions for listeners.

Once people have explored the neurological origins of choking and gotten some ideas from her book, they may want to look into techniques more specifically tailored to certain activities. There are Inner Game books on tennis, golf, skiing, music and even the workplace, though many of the methods are usable in or adaptable to other situations.