The study’s findings also suggest that the presence of an audience may be an important factor that contributes to this pre-performance memory deficit.
“Performance anticipation could weaken memory because people tend to focus on the details of their upcoming presentation instead of paying attention to information that occurs before their performance,” says lead author Noah Forrin, a postdoctoral fellow in Psychology at Waterloo. “People who experience performance anxiety may be particularly likely to experience this phenomenon.”
Read the complete article from University of Waterloo here: Anticipating performance can hinder memory
The full text journal article from the Journal of Memory and Language can be found here: Wait for it… performance anticipation reduces recognition memory