Rick Perry made presidential debate history when he forgot one of the three government agencies he would eliminate if elected president. While making his point on the CNBC debate, he hesitated on the third agency and was bombarded with comments and suggestions from his fellow candidates. When pressed for his answer he infamously replied, “…let’s see, I can’t, the third one, I can’t, sorry, oops.” He eventually remembered his point about 15 minutes later.
While the incident drew criticism from both sides of the political spectrum, it probably resonated with many individuals as well. Public speaking is the source of one of the most common social anxieties found in nonclinical samples and is “associated with significantly elevated arousal on a wide range of physiological measures of anxiety foremost among these is cortisol level” (1). How do we process information and retrieve thoughts and what can interrupt that process? How can the anxiety many feel when faced with the task of speaking to an audience be addressed?
To understand this issue we must consider some fundamental ideas of cognitive psychology. Cognition involves sensation to perception, learning, and concept formation (3). Cognitive psychology seeks to understand the thinking mind and is “concerned with:
*how we attend to and gain information about the world
*how that information is stored and processed by the brain
*how we solve problems, think, and formulate language (3, pg.2)”
There are two main models of cognition. The info-processing model focuses on time-ordered sequence of events while the neuroscience model focuses on the underlying brain function that results in cognitive experience (3). Cognition involves utilizing short-term memory, working memory, and long term memory. Processing information and developing a response requires us to be highly selective as to the amount and type of info we choose to attend to. Therefore, sensory and cognitive factors contribute directly to our ability to respond to a question. Attempting to process too many events in memory can lead to overload and ultimately a breakdown in performance (3). (Figure source: Cognitive Psychology, pg. 23)
With regards to public speaking, or any activity that requires on demand recall, explicit memory and priming are important concepts to define. Priming is the process by which a cue enhances recall or recognition of a subsequent item (3). “Explicit memory refers to the conscious recall of information, the type of memory you use when you answer a question on an examination (3, pg. 147).” The experience of interrupted thought retrieval involves many issues. There could be problems on the level of cognitive mapping. Priming ideas and storing them in memory result in neural maps. When we seek to retrieve these ideas and fail it could be a result of inadequate priming or (cue) activation. There is also the issue of attention. Whether it’s the lights beaming down on you as you stand at the podium, observing an audience member text messaging, or suddenly recalling that you have to pick up milk on your way home, something distracts your brain and it reprioritizes attention.
The October issue of Psychology Today highlighted recent research on public speaking and tools to combat anxiety. Interviewing study co-author Kathy Pezdek they highlighted that general encouragement rarely eases public speaking induced fear because as Pezdek noted, ““the anxiety serves as a retrieval cue for other anxiety-producing experiences and sparks a snowball effect” (2).” Interestingly, Pezdek & Salim (2011) found that recalling a positive childhood experience improved speaking performance. They hypothesized that activating a true, positive public speaking memory would enhance performance. A framework for this hypothesis was explained by the Active-Self account, which reasons that “behavior is guided by the active self-concept and primed constructs can affect behavior by temporarily altering the active self-concept (1).” Across all dependent variables (before and after self-reports, salivary cortisol measurements, and behavioral measurements) the treatment group demonstrated superior speaking skills.
The next time you have to stand up in front of crowd take a few minutes to recall a positive experience of speaking in front of others. A recollection as simple as successfully reciting your ABC’s in front of your parents can boost your ego, enhance your performance, and turn you into an “oops”-free public speaking pro.
(1)- Pezdek, K., Salim, R. (2011). Physiological, psychological, and behavioral consequences of activating autobiographical memories. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 1214-1218.
(2)-Gueren, Casey. (2011, September/October). From Sandbox to Soapbox: Your inner kid can kill public speaking jitters. Psychology Today, 44:5, 18.
(3)-Solso, R.L., MacLin, M.K., MacLin, O.H. (2004). Cognitive Psychology. (7th). Pearson/Allyn & Bacon
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ReplyDeleteI love these articles and this post, primarily for selfish reasons. I have had stage freight since my highschool drama class freshman year. I had memorized a monologue I was to perform, and although slightly nervous never really saw myself as someone who had issues with public speaking. That was until I stepped on stage and words poured out of my mouth at top speed, my ears began to roar, and slowly but surely my vision became slightly dark and I found myself seated and dazed on the stage. From there, for a long period of time, my "stage fright" progressed, to the point were sometimes I can even get it while asking a question in class. Practice could in fact make it worse, as could paying too close attention to my audience. Fortunately I was required to take public speaking my senior year, and then I had to practice many times for my college honors thesis oral defense. I progressed from small groups of my friends and began to build "good" memories and confidence and then I dragged it with me into larger and larger venues. I still need to remind myself to breathe in the first moments, and memorization is a terrible idea for me, but just as these articles say understanding my subject in a primed test taking way and building on positive memories has immensely improved my public speaking.
ReplyDeleteMy only question know is what exactly is the basis of public speaking fear? Why do we get so worked up and get our fight or flight kicking in?