smart people need more practice

This is kind of cool ---

Highly accomplished and talented people often choke under pressure because the distraction caused by stress consumes their big supply of short-term memory, says Sian Beilock, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, who conducted the research. In the business world, for instance, short-term memory is what lets you listen to what people are saying and yet maintain a point you want to bring up.

Because people in this group heavily rely on short-term memory to tackle challenges, they're at a particular disadvantage. When put under pressure, they resort to using less accurate short cuts to solve problems, such as guessing and estimation, much like those with lesser abilities.

[snip]

.... when talented people begin to feel the heat....

....they started worrying about screwing up. That consumed the working memory capacity of those in the study, which had allowed them to use complex strategies to solve problems in other circumstances.

"Once they had all this capacity to devote to a problem," says Beilock, "and now they're thinking about their worries, trying to suppress them and possibly causing themselves to freak out more."

[snip]

One of Gray's studies has shown that people with higher intelligence also are more taxed by having to control their emotions.

[snip]

If choking under pressure is a concern for you, Beilock's advice is practice, practice, practice--and not just problem solving, but problem solving in high-pressure situations. Memorizing methods of handling problems means you won't have to rely on your short-term memory.
source:
Why Pros and CEOs Choke

There's a strong association between high working memory capacity and high IQ. For awhile there, I think, people were thinking that working memory might actually be IQ.

I take these findings to mean that high-working memory types have "coasted" on WM; they haven't learned work-arounds or shortcuts -- like all these brainy little math kids who refuse to write out the steps because they can do them faster in their heads. (This may be completely wrong... I'm free associating.)

Because they're naturally fast, they haven't learned how to be efficient.