Know-how, procedural knowledge, and choking under pressure

Gabriel Gottlieb

pp. 361-378

in: Massimiliano Cappuccio (ed), Unreflective action and the choking effect, Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences 14 (2), 2015.

Abstract

I examine two explanatory models of choking: the representationalist model and the anti-representationalist model. The representationalist model is based largely on Anderson's ACT model of procedural knowledge and is developed by Masters, Beilock and Carr. The antirepresentationalist model is based on dynamical models of cognition and embodied action and is developed by Dreyfus who employs an antirepresentational view of know-how. I identify the models' similarities and differences. I then suggest that Dreyfus is wrong to believe representational activity requires reflection and attention. I also argue that the representationalist model of choking is preferable, since some embodied actions require appeals to representations, something not available to Dreyfus's anti-representational model.