The Mental Skill of Self-Awareness to Benefit Us and Athlete Memory Part 1: Foundation
A representation of neurons in black and what look like lights.
It is said that expert athletes have a good memory. If that is the case, can self-awareness be helpful in building an expert athlete’s memory? Let’s explore and see what we find.
Self-Awareness
First, let’s begin by understanding what self-awareness is so that everyone is on the same page. Self-awareness is the ability to recognize, acknowledge, and understand one’s own thoughts, emotions, and actions (internal), and how they can potentially affect other people (external). Self awareness can manifest itself in the following ways:
Recognition and acknowledgement of one’s own strengths and challenges without judgment.
An understanding of and ability to communicate one’s needs, thoughts, and feelings in an effective manner.
A recognition of how one’s behavior and choices impacts other people.
The development of a growth mindset.
An awareness of the need for self-care.
Now let’s look at a more scientifically researched definition of self-awareness to build on our understanding. Self-awareness constitutes a person's capacity to become the target of their own attention where they can diligently identify, process, and store information about themself (Morin, 2011). Within the definition, the three different processes of identification, processing, and informational storage highlight how self-awareness is complex. This complexity is furthered when considering the social environment, the tangible world and the self are the primary sources of self-awareness (Morin, 2011). Because the self is not the only source, context influences self-awareness and considers feedback from outside the self. Furthermore, there are consequences once a person has begun to build self-awareness. These identified consequences include (Morin, 2011):
The ability for more profound self-evaluation.
A potential to attempt to escape the self by engaging in other activities.
Heightened emotional intensity.
The ability for better self-regulation.
Increased accuracy in describing self-concept.
Engagement with the theory of mind.
When looking at a more research-based definition of self-awareness, we can go a little further in understanding the impact of self-awareness. For example, the three processes include identification, processing, and informational storage along with the idea that we must consider context. The three processes not only highlight complexity, but also how it is truly a process. One cannot simply take something in or simply identify it, but it must also be processed and retained so that it can be used. Furthermore, the layer of including context acknowledges that the external world has a role and that we can be impacted by external information. Not a new revelation, but an important one to remember.
Additional Concepts to Consider
There are a few other concepts to consider to help provide the context for the benefits and drawbacks of self-awareness to athlete memory.
Attention
Attention consists of four processes: working memory, competitive selection, top-down sensitivity control, and stimulation filtration for importance (Knudsen, 2007). The relationship between the four processes and attention is nuanced and complex. For example, in expert athletes, attention impacts motor performance through working-memory-capacity and working-memory-control to address information manipulation and capacity (Vaughan & Laborde, 2021). Breaking down attention and working-memory even further, there potentially exists a sequential relationship where attention is tasked with encoding while working memory is tasked with maintaining task performance (Awh et al., 2006). Thus, understanding the complexities and connections of attention is essential because, according to the definition of self-awareness, attention is needed to begin the process of self-awareness. Additionally, attention helps connect the concepts of athlete memory to self-awareness, thus allowing for the use of self-awareness as an access point to help athletes develop expert memory.
Context
Another concept to consider is the context of how self-awareness is used with athletes. In a study conducted by Esmaeilinasab and Adnani (2021), they found that self-awareness interrupts an athlete's performance of skillful actions, and, in contrast, the performance of an athlete's actions needs the awareness of the body, self, and position in space. These contradictory findings highlight the importance of context. As Esmaeilinasab and Adnani (2021) concluded, awareness of the present situation is needed for performing actions; however, defined bodily awareness impacts action learning and performance and can induce psychological disadvantages in the future. Beilock et al. (2003) discussed a similar idea when they highlighted how well-rehearsed sensorimotor skill execution is led by proceduralized knowledge structures, which are not given significant attention, contributing to a lack of memory upon completion, especially during competition. So, when working to build athlete memory, considerations must be taken around context and intent with self-awareness. Finally, self-awareness is beneficial to an athlete's memory because self-awareness changes an athlete's engagement with attention, which, as discussed before, connects to memory.
This is just part 1 of a series. It was a total information dump meant to build the foundation for the rest of the discussion so thank you for hanging in there!
take action today moment:
Experiment with a few of the below as ways to build self-awareness.
Find a mindfulness meditation that you can build a practice around.
Keep a daily journal where you reflect on yourself - thoughts, emotions, and actions.
Engage others to give you feedback about yourself. You will be surprised at what you can learn about yourself.
Engage in a reflection about your personal values. Are you living your values?
Learn More About EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT TRAINING:
What Is Self-Awareness? (+5 Ways to Be More Self-Aware)
How to Develop Self-Awareness and Why It’s Important
References
Anderson, S. A., Haraldsdottir, K., & Watson, D. (2021). Mindfulness in athletes. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 20(12), 655-660. doi: 10.1249/JSR.0000000000000919
Awh, E., Vogel, E. K., & Oh, S. H. (2006). Interactions between attention and working memory. Neuroscience, 139(1), 201-208.
Behncke, L. (2004). Mental skills training for sports: A brief review. Athletic Insight, 61(1), 1-19.
Beilock, S. L., Wierenga, S. A., & Carr, T. H. (2003). Memory and expertise. In J. L. Starkes & K. A. Ericsson (Eds.), Expert performance in sports (pp. 295-320). Human Kinetics.
Delaney, P. F. (2018). The role of long-term working memory and template theory in contemporary expertise research. Journal of Expertise, 1(3), 155-161.
Esmaeilinasab, M., & Adnani, S. (2021). Implicit or explicit body awareness: Which is more efficient for professional athletes? Application of embodied cognition in sport science. International Journal of Motor Control and Learning, 3(1), 41-46.
Furley, P. A., & Memmert, D. (2010). The role of working memory in sport. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 3(2), 171-194. doi: 10.1080/1750984X.2010.526238
Gardner, F. L., & Moore, Z. E. (2007). The psychology of enhancing human performance: The Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) approach. Springer.
Knudsen, E. I. (2007). Fundamental components of attention. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 30, 57-78.
Lewthwaite, R., & Wulf, G. (2017). Optimizing motivation and attention for motor performance and learning. Current Opinion in Psychology, 16, 38-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.04.005
Morin, A. (2011). Self‐awareness part 1: Definition, measures, effects, functions, and antecedents. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(10), 807-823. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2011.00387.x
Thienot, E., Jackson, B., Dimmock, J., Grove, J. R., Bernier, M., & Fournier, J. F. (2014). Development and preliminary validation of the mindfulness inventory for sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 15(1), 72-80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.10.003
Vaughan, R. S., & Laborde, S. (2021). Attention, working-memory control, working-memory capacity, and sport performance: The moderating role of athletic expertise. European Journal of Sport Science, 21(2), 240-249. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1573-7000