[Callers] Caller Expectations and Dancer Performance

I just listened to "RadioLab" on NPR http://www.radiolab.org/ The current show on "Inner Voices" is fascinating and has information about how the expectations of teachers (or callers) can affect performance. The impacts of simple word changes in how a task is described can make a dramatic difference in how people perform that task. The show talks about research on test performance as well as a study involving the performance of psychomotor skills (golf). This research dramatizes how small word choices and attitudes (or framings) by callers could change the competence of many people in the room enough to make the caller's job much easier or more difficult. Check it out. The segment about the specific research begins at about 11 minutes and 15 seconds in. But the entire show is good. Makes me think about every time I have said: "Now this part of the dance is a little tricky." - Greg McKenzie West Coast, USA