Anticipating performance contributes to memory deficit

Anticipating your own performance at work or school may hinder your pre-performance memory. Also, the presence of an audience may be an important contributory factor to the deficit, suggests a study.The study was published in the 'Journal of Memory and Language'."Performance anticipation could weaken memory because people tend to focus on the details of their upcoming presentation instead of paying attention to information that occurs before their performance," said lead author Noah Forrin, a postdoctoral fellow in Psychology at Waterloo. "People who experience performance anxiety may be particularly likely to experience this phenomenon."Building on what previous research called the next-in-line effect, Forrin and his co-authors explored how different ways of preparing for a presentation impact the pre-performance memory deficit.They experimented with a variety of techniques that enhance memory, including the production effect, which is a simple yet powerful idea that we can remember .