Attention Is a Limited Cognitive Resource
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Up to the last post, I explained motivation, one of the two pillars supporting OPTIMAL theory and the learner’s “engine,” and how to draw it out. This time I dig into the other pillar: attention, which handles the “steering” that guides that engine in the right direction.
Attention as a finite resource
Attention literally means paying attention: directing your awareness toward something specific and staying alert to it.
In OPTIMAL theory, attention is defined as
the upper limit on the amount of information (cognitive resources) a person can process at one time.
In other words, attention never wells up without end. It is a limited resource. That is exactly why we have to be very careful about how it is used.
The problems caused by running out of attention (cognitive resources)
So what goes wrong when players run out of attention, their limited resource? I have picked out five main phenomena.
- Cognitive fatigue (mental fatigue): a state in which processing capacity, for example in the frontal lobe (executive function), declines after long periods of concentration or a series of complex tactical decisions. It occurs independently of physical muscle fatigue and significantly lowers performance.
- Perceptual narrowing (tunnel vision): when attention runs dry, the brain tries to cut down the amount of information it processes and, without meaning to, drastically narrows the range of visual and auditory attention. Information from peripheral vision drops out.
- Reinvestment: under cognitive fatigue or pressure, a player turns “conscious attention (internal focus)” back onto advanced motor skills that should already be fully automated. As a result, movement loses its fluency and becomes awkward.
- Decision fatigue: the quality of judgment declines after making decision after decision. Players tend to give up the optimal tactical choice that involves risk and fall back on “the easiest option” or “default behaviour” (predictable, monotonous play).
- Ego depletion: a psychological concept that treats willpower and self-control as a finite resource (closely tied to attention) that runs down the more you use it. It leads to lower performance on later tasks and a loss of emotional control.
As you can see, running out of attention (cognitive resources) causes all kinds of problems for learners and athletes. Because attention is limited, we need to design how to use it efficiently, without wasting it.
What leads to wasting attention (cognitive resources)
So what causes attention to be wasted? As described above, “attention” in sport psychology and motor learning is the brain’s “limited cognitive spotlight (or memory capacity)” that it can use at any one time.
Attention matters so much in OPTIMAL theory for this reason: where this limited resource is invested, whether “in your own body (internal)” or “in the outcome of the movement and the environment (external),” is the biggest factor in whether the movement system’s self-organization (smooth movement) works or breaks down. In other words, every small piece of advice, every everyday comment, every move a coach makes has a huge effect on the players’ limited cognitive resources.
So where, specifically, should players point that limited “spotlight of attention”? And what words and environments should coaches design to encourage players’ self-organization?
Next time I will dig into what may be the optimal answer, one that could overturn common sense in coaching: internal focus and external focus. It is an important theme that changes how we think about the words we use with players, so I hope you look forward to it.