Sports Performance & Over-thinking

Sports Performance & Over-thinking

Sometimes athletes over-think the situation while performing. Why does over-thinking in high level athletes often lead to decreased athletic performance? Dr. Adam Lawson, Cognitive Neuroscientist, offers the following explanation.

Much of the brain can be divided into conscious controlled and automatic systems, with conscious controlled systems being focused on handling new or unusual challenges while automatic systems are best able to quickly and efficiently act on well learned acts. Practice, whether a sport or an intellectual ability, allows for the transfer of tasks from conscious controlled to automatic systems. The advantage of utilizing these automatic systems is that they are very good at repeating an action over and over again. Sometimes, our conscious and automatic systems become a hindrance, however, because two systems trying to control one body does not work very well. In the case of intellectual tasks, our conscious awareness of two competing thoughts (one automatic and one conscious controlled) can lead to the indecisiveness we call over-thinking.

Choosing a Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Recently someone suggested I look at a site called Medical Malpractice Lawyers. When I first heard about the site I wasn't really interested. However, once I looked at the site I was very impressed with the information and also with the reasons given for starting the site. I highly recommend this site, especially if you are thinking about hiring a Medical Malpractice lawyer. The site is also a great source for anyone interested in learning more about different types of medical malpractice cases.

Baby Brain Damage – Brain damage in infants is mostly caused by factors like a lack of oxygen to the brain, an unhealthy placenta, being prematurely separated from the placenta, a squashed umbilical cord, and too high or too low blood pressure in the infant. Brain damage can also be worse in infants that are born premature. Because of this damage, babies that have it are prone to several disabilities, including defective eye sight and neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy. Once they reach childhood, they may experience difficulty with speech and learning and could develop other problems such as attention deficit disorder.

Nursing Home Abuse – This term refers to any physical, sexual, psychological, verbal, or financial abuse inflicted upon residents of a nursing home facility. Such abuse continues to be a growing issue in our country; however, many cases go unreported because the victims involved are too scared or ashamed to come forward. Typically, nursing home abuse is experienced by the female residents of the facility, though some males have reportedly been victims, as well. To learn more about nursing home abuse and what you can do to help prevent it, visit Nursing Home Abuse.net.

The site lists 25 different types of cases. The site also features articles:
10 Questions to Ask an Attorney Before Retaining Their Services
The owners of the site do not accept advertising or recommend specific medical malpractice attorneys. They have purposely chosen to remain anonymous in order to eliminate the potential appearance of a conflict of interest wherein they would receive additional clients through this website.

Stats Made Ez: Stats and Public Understanding

Recently I asked Dr. Jonathan Gore the following question- Why is a basic understanding of stats important for the public?

My answer to why stats is important is that pretty much everything operates based on probability. Even some of the "hard" sciences are starting to realize that phenomena that used to only require a basic equation are now having to factor in probability to account for all that they observe. To understand events that occur in our daily lives, including understanding other people’s behaviors, the economy, and health, we have to address probabilities rather than basic equations. When I talk with religious people about the importance of statistics, and they question its relevance, I say, "Statistics is the best tool for humans to understand how God’s creation works." We may never know the complete picture, but statistics give us the best possible estimate.

Pretty much everything, including science operates based on probability. One of the biggest roadblocks to the dissemination of science and stats is that people have a strong need for absolute certainty. Science is not about absolutes.