Type Article Author(s) Gabriele Wulf Date 2013 Volume 6 Issue 1 Page start 77 Page end 104 DOI 10.1080/1750984X.2012.723728 Is part of Journal Title International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology ISSN 1750-984X EISSN 1750-9858. Attentional focus has been viewed from different perspectives and has been characterized, for example, as either associative (i.e., focusing on bodily sensation) or dissociative (i.e., blocking out sensations resulting from physical effort) (Morgan, 1978; Weinberg, Smith, Jackson, & Gould, 1984), or in terms of its width (broad versus narrow) and direction (internal versus external) (Moran, 1996; Nideffer & Sagal, 1998). Directing attention externally improves continuous visuomotor performance in older adults who have undergone cancer chemotherapy, Increasing the distance of an external focus of attention enhances standing long jump performance, Directing attention externally enhances agility performance: A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the efficacy of using verbal instructions to focus attention, Standing long-jump performance is enhanced when using an external focus of attention, Focus of attention and verbal instructions: Strategies of elite track and field coaches and athletes, A common coding approach to perception and action, Effects of focus of attention on transfer of a postural control task following an ankle sprain, Adopting an external focus facilitates motor learning in children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, Influence of varying focus on attention conditions on dart throwing performance in experts and novices, The effect of attentional focus on running economy, Enhancing motor learning through external-focus instructions and feedback, Attentional focus and control parameter: Effect on throwing pattern and performance. When attentional focus was crossed with other variables, such as performers’ preferences (Marchant, Clough, Crawshaw, & Levy, 2009; Weiss, Reber, & Owen, 2008; Wulf, Shea, & Park, 2001) or expectancies (e.g., Lohse & Sherwood, 2011), the instructed focus had a stronger effect than other variables. Instructing participants to focus on pushing the platforms forward (external focus) resulted in increased movement speed relative to instructing them to focus on pushing their feet forward (internal focus). You are currently offline. The performer's focus of attention has intrigued both practitioners and researchers as a potentially influential factor for a long time. Date 2013 Volume 6 Issue 1 Page start 77 Page end 104 DOI 10.1080/1750984X.2012.723728 Is part of Journal Title International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology ISSN 1750-984X EISSN 1750-9858. The Pedalo, which consists of two small platforms (one for each foot) between sets of wheels, moves by alternately pushing the upper platform forward and downwards. A recent study by An et al. A few studies have also looked at how different attentional foci affect movement kinematics. Furthermore, the vertical displacements of the center of mass, impulses, and joint moments about the ankle, knee, and hip joints were significantly greater, indicating that increased jump height with an external focus was achieved through greater force production (Wulf & Dufek, 2009). Add to My Bookmarks Export citation. Studies investigating the influence of the learner’s focus of attention, induced by instructions or feedback, on motor skill learning are reviewed. pmid:20541275 Accuracy in hitting golf balls has been demonstrated to be enhanced when performers were asked to focus on either the swing of the club (Wulf, Lauterbach, & Toole, 1999; Wulf & Su, 2007), the clubface, or the intended ball trajectory (Bell & Hardy, 2009) rather than on their arms (Wulf et al., 1999; Wulf & Su, 2007) or wrists (Bell & Hardy, 2009). In another study (Porter et al., forthcoming), 20-m sprint times were significantly reduced with an external focus (i.e., clawing the floor with the shoes), compared with an internal focus (i.e., moving the legs and feet down and back as quickly as possible) or a control condition (i.e., running as quickly as possible). Table 1 gives an overview of attentional focus studies in which movement effectiveness was assessed, the tasks and groups/conditions used in those studies, and the results. Also, when attentional focus instructions create a dual-task situation – as in a study by Castenada and Gray (2007), in which participants hitting baseballs had to make a judgment regarding the direction in which their hands (internal) or the bat (external) were moving when a tone was presented – the additional demands imposed on novices may cancel out any focus effects. 3099067 Some therefore questioned the reliability and generalizability to certain tasks (i.e., those being evaluated on movement form) or populations (children, older adults). review three lines of recent research at an intersection of motor learning and sport psychology as they relate to motor skill acquisition: enhanced expectancies, autonomy support, and external attentional focus. Analogy motor learning uses biomechanical metaphors to teach complex actions (e.g., hitting a table tennis backhand as if ‘throwing a frisbee’ ). Internal versus external: oral-motor performance as a function of attentional focus. Using an attentional focus manipulation, Lohse et al. 26. As a consequence, performance is degraded (for a more elaborate discussion, see Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2010). In an analysis of feedback statements used by physical therapists in their treatment of people after stroke, 95.5% of feedback statements were related to the patient's body movements (Durham, van Vliet, Badger, & Sackley, 2009). Studies included randomized trials of external (EF) versus internal focus (IF). It should also be noted that differences between focus conditions in the Perkins-Ceccato et al. Vol. Simply stated, attentional focus refers to what an individual thinks about when performing a given movement or activity. EF=external focus; IF=internal focus; C=control condition or group;>stands for ‘outperformed’. I elaborate on the latter points below. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, September 2013, Taylor & Francis Psychol., 6, 77-104, 2013. has been cited by the following article: Article. Gabriele Wulf. It also does not explain any underlying mechanisms of this effect. The question remains, however: How exactly is it that instructions that induce different attentional foci produce automaticity versus conscious control? Journal of Motor Behavior 34(2): 171-182, 2002. Also, motor skills that do not involve an implement (e.g., diving) and/or those judged by form (e.g., figure skating) have rarely been used in studies, perhaps because it is more challenging to find appropriate focus instructions for those types of situations. Volleyball serves, soccer kicks (Wulf, McConnel, Gärtner, & Schwarz, 2002), and soccer throw-ins (Wulf, Chiviacowsky, Schiller, & Ávila, 2010) have been demonstrated to result in more accurate outcomes when participants were given feedback inducing an external rather than internal focus. Increased jump height with an external focus due to enhanced lower extremity joint kinetics. Similar ‘spreading’ effects were seen in other studies as well (e.g., Vance et al., 2004; Wulf, Dufek, Lozano, & Pettigrew, 2010). The results showed that the learning of those tasks was enhanc… How changing the focus of attention affects performance, kinematics, and electromyography in dart throwing. Published online: 15 Apr 2009. Research on external versus internal foci of attention is merely concerned with the question of how and why different foci (on the skill) affect performance and learning differently. 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attentional focus and motor learning: a review of 15 years