Choking under test pressure

Kellie Bartlett

A glance at the current issue of Psychological Science: Choking under test pressure

The people most likely to "choke" under the pressure of high-stakes tests are the ones who would do best on them without pressure, say Sian L. Beilock, an assistant professor of psychology at Miami University, in Ohio, and Thomas H. Carr, a professor of psychology at Michigan State University.

In a study, the two researchers tested people who are high or low in working memory, which is "at