Time-referenced effects of an internal vs. external focus of attention on muscular activity and compensatory variability

Hossner, Ernst-Joachim; Ehrlenspiel, Felix (2010). Time-referenced effects of an internal vs. external focus of attention on muscular activity and compensatory variability. Frontiers in psychology, 1(Article 230), pp. 1-16. Niwot, Colo.: Frontiers Research Foundation 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00230

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The paralysis-by-analysis phenomenon, i.e., attending to the execution of one's movement impairs performance, has gathered a lot of attention over recent years (see Wulf, 2007, for a review). Explanations of this phenomenon, e.g., the hypotheses of constrained action (Wulf et al., 2001) or of step-by-step execution (Masters, 1992; Beilock et al., 2002), however, do not refer to the level of underlying mechanisms on the level of sensorimotor control. For this purpose, a “nodal-point hypothesis” is presented here with the core assumption that skilled motor behavior is internally based on sensorimotor chains of nodal points, that attending to intermediate nodal points leads to a muscular re-freezing of the motor system at exactly and exclusively these points in time, and that this re-freezing is accompanied by the disruption of compensatory processes, resulting in an overall decrease of motor performance. Two experiments, on lever sequencing and basketball free throws, respectively, are reported that successfully tested these time-referenced predictions, i.e., showing that muscular activity is selectively increased and compensatory variability selectively decreased at movement-related nodal points if these points are in the focus of attention.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Sport Science (ISPW)
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Sport Science (ISPW) > Movement and Exercise Science

UniBE Contributor:

Hossner, Ernst-Joachim

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
700 Arts > 790 Sports, games & entertainment

ISSN:

1664-1078

Publisher:

Frontiers Research Foundation

Language:

English

Submitter:

Factscience Import

Date Deposited:

04 Oct 2013 14:10

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:01

Publisher DOI:

10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00230

Uncontrolled Keywords:

motor control, focus of attention, internal focus, external focus, nodal-point hypothesis, electromyography, kinematics, compensatory variability

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.1428

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/1428 (FactScience: 203063)

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