Perceiving and moving in sports and other high-pressure contexts

Abstract

From an ecological psychological perspective, the current chapter discusses the influence of anxiety on the perception, selection, and realization of affordances in sports and other high-pressure contexts, particularly police work. Drawing on recent developments in the anxiety-performance literature (i.e., the attentional control theory) the authors' experimental work on the impact of anxiety on perceptual-motor performance is described. Furthermore, several experiments showing positive effects of training with anxiety on performance under pressure are discussed. We argue that through reality-based training with anxiety, processes that underlie performance might be recalibrated to the new task constraints, thereby preventing a degradation of eventual performance in stressful situations.