The Effects of Attentional Focus Instructions and Task Difficulty in a Paced Fine Motor Skill

Abstract

An external focus of attention is considered superior to an internal focus for learning and performance. However, findings specific to changing the task difficulty are inconsistent. The present study used a reciprocal aiming task to determine the effects of attentional focus on motor performance using speed-accuracy paradigm. We constrained timing to examine how internal and external focus of attention influenced accuracy when task difficulty changes. The results indicated greater accuracy on the right target and greater consistency on both targets for the external focus condition, regardless of task difficulty. Our results uniquely demonstrated how instruction modified a speed-accuracy task.     

Developmental Changes in Pointing as a Function of Attentional Focus

Three experiments investigate the effect of a parent's attentional focus on the pointing of children from 1 to 2 years of age. Children were presented with an interesting sight on one or the other side of a laboratory room while the parent was either looking toward that side or not. The results show that 1-year-olds are more likely to point when the parent is looking at them, whether or not the parent has already seen the interesting sight. In contrast, 2-year-olds tend to point more both when the partner has not seen and when she is no longer looking at the sight than when she is looking at it. These findings are consistent with the idea that when they first start to point, infants use the gesture to enhance the interaction rather than to redirect the attention of the partner. By 2 years of age, children point to redirect attention to an interesting sight and to share attention with a communicative partner.     

The Effects of Multisensory Imagery in Conjunction with Physical Movement Rehearsal on Golf Putting Performance

A multiple-baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of a pre-shot putting routine on the putting performance of four NCAA Division I golfers. The routine involved a combination of multisensory imagery and simulated putting movements. Results suggested that the intervention was effective for some participants. Discussion focuses on directions for future research and the use of single-subject design procedures in sport psychology and related disciplines.

New Developments in Understanding Skilled Performance

ABSTRACT— Skilled performance, whether it involves rapid and accurate motor movements (such as playing a video game or using a scalpel in the operating room) or a high degree of domain knowledge (such as finding a small tumor in an X-ray or writing a journal article) typically involves learning and practice over an extended period of time. In light of recent theory and empirical research, I consider two enduring issues associated with skill acquisition: whether individuals become more alike in performance or more different over the course of skill acquisition, and what the determinants of individual differences in skilled performance are. Two broad classes of tasks are considered: tasks that involve speed and accuracy of motor movements and tasks that primarily involve domain knowledge. Issues of practice, ability, and other determinants of skilled performance such as gender and aging are discussed.     

The Efficiency of Skilled Performance

The observed ease or effort of performance has traditionally been considered an integral part of any definition of skill (e.g., Guthrie, 1935). Empirical investigations of skill learning and performance have, however, largely ignored the effort or efficiency with which the movement is performed. This situation has arisen despite the fact that in many skills, particularly athletic endurance events or industrial work tasks, efficiency of performance may be essential to the goal of the task. This paper focuses on the energy demand of various skills and its relationship to issues of learning, performance, and individual differences in preferred rhythm. It is shown that across a variety of tasks the individual’s freely chosen work-rate is the most efficient. The significance of preferred rhythm to theoretical perspectives on rhythmic activity is discussed.     

Attentional Advice: Effects on Immediate,Delayed,and Transfer Task Performance

Attentional advice entails providing information to trainees about the process or strategy they could use to optimize learning during practice. The effects of providing attentional advice before practicing the task on immediate, delayed, and transfer performances were examined. One hundred-sixteen participants engaged in procedural product assembly tasks (i.e., building LegoÓ models) with supply management duties. Those who received attentional advice made significantly higher profits than those not receiving advice across all performance intervals. Benefits of attentional advice to facilitate practice are discussed.     

调节匹配对期望与绩效关系的影响

以往研究发现了调节定向、调节期望与绩效的关系。本研究基于调节匹配理论,以149名大学生为被试、通过与个体长期调节定向相一致或不一致的任务框架(收获/无收获vs无损失/损失)操作调节匹配性,进一步研究了调节匹配对期望与绩效关系的影响。结果显示,调节匹配会进一步加强以往研究中发现的调节定向对期望和绩效关系的调节模式,不匹配会起到削弱作用。当促进定向占主导的个体完成强调有无收获的任务时,高期望对绩效的促进作用显著高于完成强调有无损失的任务;而当预防定向占主导的个体完成强调有无损失的任务时,低期望对绩效的促进作用显著高于完成强调有无收益的任务。     

Facial Recognition: Weapon Effect and Attentional Focus1

The present experiment investigated the hypothesis that a weapon can serve as a cue that will interfere with the eyewitness’ encoding of the weapon-holder's facial features. Extrapolating from Easterbrook's cue utilization hypothesis, an interaction between arousal and attentional focus was predicted. White female college students played a bogus visual discrimination game in which they saw a total of 24 target photos: six black targets holding a weapon in their hands, six white targets holding weapons, six black targets holding objects other than weapons, and six white targets holding objects other than weapons. Subjects were randomly assigned to view the photos while experiencing white noise and threat of electric shock (high arousal) or without such factors (low arousal). Subjects were also randomly assigned to one of four attentional focus levels: face focus, hand focus, background focus, and free focus. A signal detection-type task provided an assessment of identification accuracy. The data revealed a significant “weapon effect”: Subjects were better at identifying photos of targets who were not holding a weapon than they were at identifying photos of targets who were holding a weapon. Focus of attention and race of target also significantly affected recognition accuracy, as did arousal in one of two analyses. No support was found, however, for the predicted interaction between arousal and attentional focus. Finally, subjects showed a strong criterion shift according to the race of target; they were much more likely to make a “seen before” response to other-race (black) faces than to same-race faces.     

Attentional Effects in Dichotic Listening

This study addresses attentional effects in dichotic listening (DL) to consonant-vowel syllables. Previous research has shown that ear advantages in DL are modulated by biased attention to either the left or the right ear. Attentional effects in DL can be the result of two processes: facilitation of reports from the attended ear, or suppression of intrusions from the nonattended ear. Sixty-two students were tested with DL under three different task instructions: nonforced (divided) attention, attention forced to the right ear, and attention forced to the left ear. The main finding was inhibition of intrusions from the nonattended ear, combined with the facilitation of the correct reports from the attended ear during the two forced-attention conditions, compared with the nonforced condition. The results are discussed in relation to right hemisphere processing of dichotic input, and that attention may activate subcortically biased asymmetries which suppress input from the nonattended channel.     

Aging and Memory in Skilled Language Performance

The issue of irreversible decrements versus developmental plasticity with aging was explored for skilled language users. Fifteen English teachers (22 to 31 years of age) and 15 retired English teachers (50 to 83 years of age) were tested for language memory, using a 2 × 2 × 2 (Recall vs. Recognition × Meaningful vs. Nonmeaningful × Incidental vs. Intentional) design, and for overall grammar-skill memory, using speed and error measures. On the language-memory test, experimental variables (but not the age variable) were related to performance. On the grammar-skill test, the older subjects showed longer completion times but no decrements in accuracy. The results provided support for developmental plasticity in language memory and suggested an optimistic view of memory for skilled content areas.     

Attentional Focus of Students with Hyperactivity During a Word-Search Task

Mirrors have been used to focus attention to aspects of the self (e.g., to known strategies, standards). We hypothesized that this could be important for students with hyperactivity/inattention, who typically direct attention outward to external novelty. In this study, we administered a partially solvable word puzzle to 43 middle school students, with and without hyperactivity/inattention, in the presence and absence of a mirror, counterbalanced for condition and form order. Differences between students with hyperactivity/inattention and comparisons in accuracy were found only in the no mirror condition. Furthermore, the beneficial effect of the mirror for children with hyperactivity/inattention was most pronounced for those who looked at the mirror. Findings were interpreted in terms of their potential to remedy the production deficits of these children.     

Measuring Attentional Demand in Continuous Dual-task Performance

Despite its intuitive appeal, the commonly held assumption that there is some general limitation on dual-task performance has been shown to be seriously flawed (Allport 1980; Navon 1984). Central to this has been the inability to measure the attentional demands of tasks, without which there is no way to determine whether their joint demands exceed the hypothetical general limit. In the absence of such a measure, dual-task interference can always be explained by the alternative possibility that specific interference has occurred. A method is described in which the attentional demands of tasks can be measured and crossvalidated by the use of two scales. Two experiments are described in which a general attentional limit is found; the measurement of attentional demand is consistent across scales and can be made at a level of precision approximating that of an interval scale.     

The Influence of Attentional Focus on Balance Control over Seven Days of Training

This study examined the training effect of attentional focus (external focus, internal focus, or no focus instructions) on a dynamic balance task. Participants completed baseline balance testing, seven consecutive days of dynamic balance board training, and retention testing 24 hours after the last session. The novel finding of this study was the presence of a training effect on balance control when adopting an external focus relative to an internal focus or no focus instructions. Further, we report the unique observation that more patterned behavior was adopted regardless of the focus instructions. These findings provide insight into how instructions can be altered to enhance human balance control and complement the constrained-action hypothesis.     

网络游戏成瘾者注意焦点转换功能的特异性损伤研究

网络游戏成瘾对人类认知功能的损伤日益成为研究焦点之一。采用注意焦点转换任务,分别要求网络游戏成瘾被试与正常被试在工作记忆的语音环内、视空画板内及语音环——视空画板间进行注意焦点转换,然后比较两组被试在各转换任务中转换代价的差异,来探讨网络游戏成瘾者的注意焦点转换功能是否受损以及受损的特征。结果发现网络游戏成瘾组被试在视空画板内进行注意焦点转换时比对照组被试表现出更大的转换代价,而在其他两种转换任务中则没有发现组间差异。此结果表明网络游戏成瘾者的注意转换功能受到特异性损伤。     

Modulation of the Spatial Extent of the Attentional Focus in High-level Volleyball Players

In this study, we explored the ability of first league professional volleyball players to modulate the allocation of attentional resources in the visual space by adapting the size of the attentional focus. Like Castiello and Umilta (1990), we employed an experimental procedure that is a variation of Posner's (1980) paradigm for exploring covert orienting of visuospatial attention. In a signalled reaction time task, a peripheral cue of varying size was presented unilaterally or bilaterally of a central fixation point, followed by a target at different stimulus onset asynchronies. The target could occur validly inside the cue or invalidly outside it with varying spatial relation to its boundary. Our results suggest that volleyball players are better able than controls to modulate the distribution of attentional resources within and around peripherally cued areas. Moreover, volleyball players seem to be able to flexibly adapt the gradient of attentional resources around the cued area, as would be expected from their sport practice.     

焦虑和抑郁对正负性注意偏向的影响：注意控制的中介作用

采用状态-特质焦虑量表、流调抑郁量表、注意控制量表和正负性信息注意量表,对481名在校大学生进行调查研究,考察了焦虑、抑郁对注意偏向的影响,并探讨了注意控制在其中的中介作用。研究发现：（1）正性注意偏向与注意控制呈正相关,与状态焦虑、特质焦虑和流调抑郁呈负相关;负性注意偏向与注意控制呈负相关,与状态焦虑、特质焦虑和流调抑郁呈正相关。（2）特质焦虑、注意集中、注意转移可显著预测正性注意偏向,状态焦虑、流调抑郁和注意集中则显著预测负性注意偏向。（3）注意转移和注意集中中介了状态焦虑、特质焦虑、流调抑郁和正、负性注意偏向间的关系。研究提示注意控制是一个重要的保护性因素,可缓解或消除焦虑和抑郁对注意偏向的负面影响。     

注意负荷对内隐序列学习的影响研究

运用次级任务研究范式,采用符号计数的次级任务和歧义序列中的次级条件序列,将内隐序列学习分为单任务组和双任务组,统一在单任务条件下测试。结果发现:(1)两组被试内隐学习成绩差异不显著;(2)双任务组被试在学习组块和测试组块的内隐学习差异也不显著。结果进一步支持了在次级任务占用注意资源的条件下内隐学习仍然可以正常地获得、内隐序列学习不受注意负荷影响的观点。     

Toward A Process-Oriented Theory of Human Skilled Performance

Skilled perceptual-motor performance should be approached from a point of view of the processing operations performed by S in a skilled task. This perspective is emphasized in recent attempts to develop analytic or computer-simulation models of tracking tasks. These models are illustrated, and it is argued that a model that has a discrete correction compensatory path and a continuously programmed pursuit path may form one starting point for a more general representation. This representation needs to incorporate as yet undefined processing and storage units to handle coherence prediction, memorized movement patterns, and compensation for external system dynamics.     

The Attentional Focus of Expert Golfers in Training and Competition: A Naturalistic Investigation

This study explored the attentional focus of expert golfers using a naturalistic approach. Eight male professional golfers were filmed in two contexts (training and competition). Self-confrontation interviews based on the video were conducted immediately afterwards. Qualitative data analyses showed that golfers used various attentional foci. Foci were classified according to their content and their characteristics. Golfers adapted their attentional foci to the context. They used sequences of attentional foci and moved from one attentional focus to another when they prepared, executed, or evaluated their shot. Future research on attentional focus of expert athletes should study the phenomenon over time.