Performance Anxiety
Management

Nicholas Gallucci, Ph.D.

Cognitive Interference in Context

“The brain’s left hemisphere has a bad habit of being a blabbermouth or chiacchierone – it talks too much. Even worse is its readiness to be a kibitzer as it looks on and offers unwanted advice and comments. Worse still, it can be a schnorrer or freeloader; showing up uninvited at the most inopportune times and mooching resources."

To place a schnorrer in context, imagine that you’ve planned the perfect evening with your significant other. You prepared a gourmet dinner for two, lit the candles, and as you toast “to us,” the doorbell rings. In walks your Uncle Bernie, Aunt Agnes, and their three kids. They want to spend some quality time and they have brought their appetites. Even the most charitable might see Uncle Bernie as a schnorrer; a freeloader who shows up uninvited at the most inopportune times.

No less a schnorrer is cognitive interference. It is uninvited and can catch one unawares.