Kinesiology Commons^™

Attentional Focus Effects On Motor Variability, Charlend Kenneth Howard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Subtle changes in task instructions with associated changes of one’s focus of attention (FOA) can have measurable effects on performance and learning of complex motor skills (Wulf, 2013). The beneficial effects of adopting an external focus of attention (EF) have been well-documented in physical environments, and recently have also been demonstrated in virtual reality (VR) environments (Cochran, Aiken, Rhea, & Raisbeck, 2021; Yamada, Kuznetsov, Diekfuss, & Raisbeck, 2021). However, these studies primarily focused on performance outcomes (such as error and accuracy), with relatively less emphasis on movement coordination. Given that most human movements are motor abundant (more degrees of freedom …