Location versus task relevance: The impact of differing internal focus of attention instructions on motor performance

From Novice to Expert: How Expertise Shapes Motor Variability in Sports Biomechanics-a Scoping Review

With expertise, athletes develop motor strategies that enhance sports performance or reduce functional costs. Motor variability is known as a relevant way to characterize these strategies in athletes with different levels of expertise. The aim of this scoping review is to gather and discuss the latest advances in the impact of expertise on motor variability during sports-related tasks. A search encompassing three databases, Medline, SportDiscus, and Academic Search Complete, was performed. Our research methodology included three core themes: motor variability, laboratory instruments, and sports. Motor variability metrics (e.g., standard deviation and approximate entropy) and laboratory instruments (e.g., motion capture system, EMG, and force plate) were compiled. Athletes' expertise was defined by the time of deliberate practice, the performance results, or the level in which they performed. Overall, 48 of the 59 included studies determined that higher-skilled athletes had lesser motor variability than lower-skilled athletes. This difference in motor variability between skill levels was present within individual athletes (intra-individual) and between athletes (inter-individual). This result was independent of the criteria used to define expertise, the type of instrumentation used, and the metrics used to quantify motor variability.

The Relationship between Inclination for Conscious Movement Monitoring and Control and Stopping a Golf Stroke

Increased conscious movement monitoring and control can impair sports performance. Recent evidence indicates it might facilitate stopping motor actions. To further investigate, we asked novices to putt balls, but they needed to stop promptly while an auditory cue appeared during the downswing. They also completed the Movement Specific Reinvestment Scale, which measures movement self-consciousness (MS-C) and conscious motor processing, indicating the degree of inclination for conscious movement monitoring and control, respectively. Individuals with high MS-C displayed higher stopping rates but longer stopping time. Further exploration suggests that they were more likely to make slow downswings, allowing successful but late stops. We conclude that increased conscious movement monitoring may affect movement execution in such a way that it affords better stopping of ongoing motor actions.

The effects of conscious movement investment on inhibiting a golf stroke

Previous studies have suggested an association between conscious movement investment and inhibiting motor actions. However, no within-designs were used in which conscious movement investment was manipulated. The current study compared changes in inhibition after instruction interventions that aimed to expand and limit conscious investment in the execution of a golf putting task. During a baseline and post-intervention test, participants were asked to putt balls in a hole. Randomly, an auditory stop-signal appeared 50 ms after reaching the end of backswing on some trials, signalling them to stop the downswing as quickly as possible. Between the two tests, the participants practiced under different instructions, without the stop-signal. One group (i.e., expanded conscious investment, ECIG) received multiple explicit movement-related instructions along with the internal focus of attention instructions, while the second group (i.e., limited conscious investment, LCIG) received a single analogy instruction paired with external focus of attention instructions. The results did not reveal significant differences in stopping rate and stopping time between the baseline and post-intervention tests and the two groups. However, a mediation analysis highlighted that the ECIG exhibited a greater change in downswing time compared to the LCIG. This change was correlated with a larger increase in stopping rate and stopping time. We conclude that conscious movement investment did not directly influence inhibition. Instead, we discuss how conscious movement investment may indirectly influence inhibition dependent on the putting kinematics.

The location of an internal focus of attention differentially affects motor performance

Prior research has questioned the appropriateness of internal focus instructions or the juxtaposition to external and control conditions. Moreover, there has been a lack of research conducted to test a variety of internal conditions on motor performance. The purpose of the present study was to address those critiques and add to the attentional focus literature by varying the location of an internal focus while performing a standing long jump. Participants performed a standing long jump during five separate conditions (internal focus: toes, knees, hips, arms; and control). The analysis revealed that all internal focus conditions performed worse than the control condition. Furthermore, the only difference between internal conditions was found between arms and knees, where the knee condition resulted in a significantly shorter jump distance relative to the arms. Regardless of the location specified, all internal focus conditions led to detriments in jump performance when compared to the control condition. These findings add to a large body of work demonstrating the importance of instructional content on motor performance.

The effects of attentional focus on speech motor control in adults who stutter with and without social evaluative threat

PURPOSE

We sought to investigate the effects of cued attentional shifts on speechmotor control in adults who stutter (AWS) and adults who do not stutter (ANS) when speaking under low and high social stress conditions.

METHOD

Thirteen AWS' and 10 ANS' lip aperture (LA) and posterior tongue (PT) movements were assessed under a Cued-Internal and Cued-External attentional focus condition with and without social stress induction (i.e. speaking to an audience). Skin conductance levels were used to measure a stress response. Speech motor control was assessed by measuring movement duration and variability of movement for LA and PT using the spatial temporal index (STI).

RESULTS

A significant Group x Condition interaction was found for LA STI. Post-hoc comparisons indicated AWS' LA STI significantly decreased under Cued External Focus conditions during both low and high social stress. No significant Group x Condition interaction was found for PT STI. AWS showed significantly slower tongue movements (PT) across all low and high social stress conditions; however, there was no significant Group x Condition interaction for PT or LA.

DISCUSSION

Findings yield preliminary insights into the role of attentional focus on speech motor control when speaking during high social stress. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

Every story has two sides: evaluating information processing and ecological dynamics perspectives of focus of attention in skill acquisition

Directing our focus of attention appropriately during task execution can benefit outcome performance, cognitive efficiency, and physiological efficiency. For instance, individuals may benefit from adopting an external focus of attention (i.e., by focusing attention on the effects of one's movements on the environment) over an internal focus of attention (e.g., focusing on one's body movements). However, accounts concerning the theoretical functioning of such effects have primarily relied on hierarchical information processing perspectives; far less consideration has been given to potentially alternative explanations based on ecological dynamics, instances where an internal focus may be desirable over an external focus, and the associated applied implications. Within the present review, we: (a) outline the most recent developments in attentional focus research; (b) evaluate similarities and differences between information processing and ecological dynamics explanations of the focus of attention effect; (c) provide practical recommendations; and (d) discuss future research avenues. In doing so, a case is made for an "Ecological Dynamics Account of Attentional Focus" to act as an alternative to information processing-based hypotheses.

[Attentional focus instructions for therapeutic exercise in people with musculoskeletal disorders. A scoping review]

Attentional focus instructions are verbal strategies that could maximize the effects of exercise. The objective of this review was to explore and synthesize the available evidence on the incorporation of attentional focus instruction in the exercise of people with musculoskeletal disorders. A search of 11 databases was carried out until October 2020. Of 4,227 studies identified in the searches, 15 were included. The studies showed deficiencies in the conceptualization and definition of attentional focus instructions. The available evidence indicates that external focus is effective in improving motor learning and function. However, methodological limitations, clinical heterogeneity, the small number of articles included, and new experimental studies challenge the conclusions of the systematic reviews available to date. Attentional focus instructions in musculoskeletal disorders is an emerging field and requires further research. This review is a guide for future studies.

Skilled swimmers maintain performance stability under changing attentional focus constraints

Focusing attention externally, rather than internally, has generally proved advantageous as it avoids interfering with self-organzing processes. However, some research has suggested that this may not necessarily be the case with highly skilled individuals who by definition possess a greater capacity to either adapt or maintain stability under varied task constraints. This study aimed to address this gap by comparing the performance of skilled athletes under internal and external attentional focus conditions using the swimming dive start as a task vehicle. Using a counterbalanced repeated measures design, skilled swimmers performed dive starts in conditions of differing attentional focus - internal and external attentional focus. Kinetic and kinematic variables were collected and statistical analyses conducted to compare differences between conditions. The results revealed no differences in outcome performance (relative peak power, horizontal velocity, and time to 5 m) between internal and external focus conditions. However, remaining kinematic and kinetic measures revealed that all movement events occurred earlier in the movement sequence, suggesting superior self-organization of movement in the external focus condition. An external focus may be beneficial for the organization of movement control in skilled swimmers, but may not have an immediate impact upon the outcome of the task.

Performance, Achievement, and Success in Psychological Research: Towards a More Transparent Use of the Still Ambiguous Terminology

The present study focused on the terms performance, achievement, and success that have often been used in an ambiguous manner in psychological research. The way in which the meaning of the domain-specific constructs referred to with the terms was established for measurement purposes was investigated on a sample of 262 articles that stemmed from 35 randomly selected journals covering the full range of psychological research. The operational definitions of the constructs referred to with the terms performance, achievement, and success were analysed and compared in both inter- and intra-domain fashion. Additionally, we assessed the match among the observed operational definitions and general conceptual definitions available in the extant literature. The results revealed terminology-related issues in educational and occupational research. Within these domains, lack of adherence to the multidimensionality of the constructs of academic performance, academic achievement, academic success, job performance, and career success was identified as a general issue. Further, the tendency to measure job performance via indicators based on self-rating was considered inadequate given the objective nature of the term performance. In educational research, the overlap of the academic performance, academic achievement, and academic success constructs was confirmed, resulting from the tendency to use GPA as a universal indicator of academic outcomes. Based on the present findings, we provided several recommendations in order to encourage future research towards a more transparent way of dealing with the particular constructs referred to with the terms performance, achievement, and success. We suppose the present study may help researchers in the full range of psychological disciplines to add clarity to their own research.

Performance-related stress mediates the online control and integration of sequential movements

The effects of stress on directing attention within performance have been broadly explained by self-focus and distraction perspectives, where stress causes attention to be drawn internally or toward the sources of worry, respectively. Recent studies that have adopted manual aiming under different levels of stress have illuminated our understanding of the stress-performance framework. The present study seeks to elaborate on this current trend by introducing a sequential task, where the integration of individual movement segments enhances the demands on preparation and control, and thus closely examines the explanatory power of the self-focus and distraction perspectives. This study involved executing aiming movements solely to one-target (1T), or continuing by extending (2TE) and reversing (2TR) the limb to a second target. Participants were instructed to simply execute rapid and accurate movements (low-stress), and additionally provided a socio-comparative stressor (high-stress). While there was no one- (1 T vs. 2TE) or two-target (1T vs. 2TR) advantage, there was a shorter movement time in the first segment of the one-target task that appeared to dissipate when under high-stress. In addition, the high-stress conditions caused shorter reaction and pause times, while the proportion of the sequence time decreased within the pause, but increased within the second segment. Consequently, the overall sequence time failed to differ between low- and high-stress. These findings indicate that the online control of movement is accommodated under high-stress. We suggest these procedures unfold following a primary focus to uphold the performance outcome. Thus, these findings appear to be consistent with the distraction perspective.

Impact of attentional focus on motor performance within the context of "early" limb regulation and "late" target control

Directing attention to the effect of one's movement (external focus) has been shown to aid performance compared to directing attention to the movement itself (internal focus). This finding has been predominantly explained by an external focus promoting action planning and automatic movement control, while an internal focus acts to constrain movement (constrained action hypothesis [CAH]). In a separate line of research, the multiple control process model states that early movement phases involve anticipated and feedforward processes, while late movement phases explicitly incorporate external afferent information. We hypothesized that enhanced planning and automatic movement control would manifest from an external/distal focus compared to internal/proximal focus. The present study had participants execute fast and accurate movements to a single target using a digitizing graphics tablet that translated movements to a screen. Participants were instructed to focus on the end target location (external-distal), movement of the cursor (external-proximal), and movement of the limb (internal-proximal). It was found that the external-distal focus generated a shorter time to initiate and execute movements (indicating enhanced movement planning) compared to the external- and internal-proximal conditions. In addition, only the external proximal focus revealed a reduction in spatial variability between peak velocity and movement end (indicating greater online control). These findings indicate that advances in action planning and online control occur when adopting an external-distal focus. However, there were some benefits to online control when adopting an external-proximal focus. We propose that an external-distal focus promotes action-effect principles, where there is a greater contribution of anticipatory feedforward processes that limit the need for late online control.

Expert and Novice Performers Respond Differently to Attentional Focus Cues for Speed Jump Roping

Directing attention to an external focus has been shown to facilitate motor performance. For expert performers, however, results have been mixed. Additionally, little is currently known about how focus cues affect the performance of complex continuous whole-body coordination tasks involving object manipulation such as jump roping. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of attentional focus cues on single-rope speed jumping by experts and novices. The cues directed attention toward the upper (UP) or lower (LB) body and either internally (IN) or externally (EX). Participants (N = 30) completed bouts of speed jumping during a baseline trial and under experimental conditions (UPIN, UPEX, LBIN, LBEX). Jumps and errors were recorded for each trial. Number of jumps (NJ) and errors (NE) were analyzed using separate Friedman's Tests comparing for each group to compare trials, with Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Tests for post hoc comparisons. Cumulative number of jumps (CNJ) and errors (CNE) for each condition were compared using separate Friedman's Tests with Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Tests for post hoc comparisons. For experts, baseline NJ was significantly higher than NJ for each trial under the UPIN, UPEX, and LBIN conditions. No differences between baseline NE and any trials were detected. Additionally, no differences were detected between conditions for NJ or NE. For novices, baseline NJ and NE were significantly higher and lower, respectively, compared to Trial 1 under the LBEX condition. Both the UPIN and UPEX conditions produced higher CNJ and lower CNE than the LBIN and LBEX conditions, respectively. Results showed that experts and novices responded in distinctly different patterns to the four conditions. Experts showed degraded performance under the UPIN, UPEX, and LBIN conditions whereas novices only showed temporarily degraded performance under the LBEX condition. These findings may reflect differences in mastery of whole-body coordination and are partially consistent with the Constrained Action Hypothesis (CAH) despite not supporting specific predictions related to the benefit of external focus cues.