Abstract
In high stakes situations, people sometimes choke under pressure, performing below their abilities. Here, we suggest a novel mechanism to account for this paradoxical effect of motivation: the automatic adjustment of action vigour to potential reward. Although adaptive on average, this mechanism may impede fine motor control. Such detrimental effect was observed in three studies (n = 74 in total), using behavioural tasks where payoff depended on the precision of handgrip squeezing or golf putting. Participants produced more force for higher incentives, which aggravated their systematic overshooting of low-force targets. This reward bias was specific to action vigour, as reward did not alter action timing, direction or variability across trials. Although participants could report their reward bias, they somehow failed to limit their produced force. Such an automatic link between incentive and force level might correspond to a Pavlovian response that is counterproductive when action vigour is not instrumental for maximizing reward.
Highlights
During a professional golf tournament, a famous champion once missed a hole that was only one meter away on the green
We report three replication studies, where we first validate the concept of a reward bias, isolate incentive effects on force from potential effects on timing and direction, and generalize the phenomenon to a more ecological paradigm
For all three experiments presented in the main text, participants were trained at a motor precision task, first with online visual feedback, with offline feedback only, and without any feedback on performance, as in the test blocks
Summary
During a professional golf tournament, a famous champion once missed a hole that was only one meter away on the green. Both theories have received empirical support and are considered as valid explanations of pressure effects on various motor and cognitive skills, including golf putts, tennis serves, basketball free throws, working memory, mathematical problem solving, etc.[15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22]. They do not specify which aspect of motor or cognitive processes is disrupted under pressure
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