Does Varying Attentional Focus Affect Skill Acquisition in Children? A Comparison of Internal and External Focus Instructions and Feedback

Agar, Charles; Humphries, Charlotte; Naquin, Millie; Hébert, Edward; Wood, Ralph

doi:10.18666/tpe-2016-v73-i4-6883

Cited by 23 publications

(25 citation statements)

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“…Most researches comparing EFA and IFA have suggested that using EFA is more beneficial than IFA, but current study and a few others (Agar, Humphries, Naquin, Hebert, & Wood, 2016;Black, 2004;Emanuel et al, 2008) suggest that there may be exceptions. There is some evidence in the literature that beginners in the early stages of learning may advantage from IFA.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 59%

Do Children Benefit External Focus of Attention as Much as Adults? A Motor Learning Study

Roshandel¹,

Taheri²,

Moghadam³

2017

MAS

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Recent evidence supports advantages of an external focus of attention on learning motor skills, however, there is a need to retest these finding for children and comparing them with adults. Thus, the purpose of current study was to determine the effect of different attentional focus on learning a motor skill in children and adults. Thirty children (8-12 year) and thirty adults (25-42 years) were randomly assigned to one of four groups: (1) Children external focus of attention (EFA), (2) Children- internal focus of attention (IFA), (3) Adults- External focus of attention (EFA), (4) Adults- internal focus of attention (IFA). Following initial instructions and task demonstration, participants performed 60 darts throwing in six blocks and 24 hours later performed 10 additional throws for retention test. Results revealed that children benefited from EFA and IFA instruction in the same manner, however, adults benefited from EFA more than IFA instruction. Future studies should continue to examine effects of different attentional focus on other skills.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 59%

Do Children Benefit External Focus of Attention as Much as Adults? A Motor Learning Study

Roshandel¹,

Taheri²,

Moghadam³

2017

MAS

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“…Of note, not all researchers have found the external focus advantage (Agar, Humphries, Naquin, Hebert, & Wood, 2016; Chow, Woo, & Koh, 2014). Some previous studies have also shown that the effects of attention on performance differ depending on the type of internal focus.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

External Versus Two Different Internal Foci of Attention in Long-Distance Throwing

2017

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The present study examined the influence of attentional focus on performance during a long-distance throwing task. Twelve participants executed three maximum-effort, long-distance baseball throwing attempts in three focus conditions: internal focus on wrist flexion (wrist internal focus), internal focus on the separation between pelvis and upper torso orientations (torso internal focus), and external focus on the ball path (external focus). Compared with the external focus and torso internal focus conditions, performance was poorer in the wrist internal focus condition. Performances were not different in the torso internal and external focus conditions. In addition, attentional focus affected the release angle of the ball but not its initial velocity. Our results reveal that the body part targeted for internal focus of attention and the forcefulness of the motor activity can be as important to motor performance as whether the attention is internal or external.

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“…Contradictory findings were reported by Emanuel, Jarus, and Bart (2008) who showed that 8-9-year-olds who adopted an internal focus when learning dart throwing were more accurate than their external focus counterparts on the transfer test. Further, Palmer, Matsuyama, Irwin, Porter, and Robinson (2017) who investigated object control performance in children aged 5-10 years, Perreault and French (2016) who examined the basketball free throw with children aged 9-11 years, and Agar, Humphries, Naquin, Hebert, and Wood (2016) who used a shuffleboard task with children aged 5-8 years and 9-12 years reported no significant differences between internal and external focus groups. Thus, how and under what circumstances attentional focus affects children's motor learning remain unclear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinematic Effects of Varying Adolescents' Attentional Instructions for Standing Long Jump

Coker

2018

Percept Mot Skills

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Studies examining attentional focus in the motor performance of children and young adolescents have produced mixed results. We studied 26 seventh-grade physical education student volunteers ( Mage = 12.7 years; SD = 0.56) who performed two standing long jumps for maximum displacement in four counterbalanced instructional conditions: (a) no cues provided, (b) focus on rapid knee extension, (c) focus on rapid forward arm swing, and (d) focus to jump as close as possible to a cone placed at 3 meters. The last condition, encouraging an external focus, led to significantly greater jumping distances and significantly lower projection angles (36.9°) when compared with internal attentional foci on the actions of the legs (40.2°) and arms (38.6°). Compared with the leg focus, the arm focus lead to significantly greater jumping distances but no differences for projection angle. While these results are consistent with those of past adult participants, when comparing external and internal attentional foci, this study extended these findings to adolescents and revealed differences in projection angle, indicating that cueing young adolescents to focus on arm action did not appear to constrain movement in the same manner as it has in adults.

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Does Varying Attentional Focus Affect Skill Acquisition in Children? A Comparison of Internal and External Focus Instructions and Feedback

Cited by 23 publications

References 0 publications

Do Children Benefit External Focus of Attention as Much as Adults? A Motor Learning Study

Do Children Benefit External Focus of Attention as Much as Adults? A Motor Learning Study

External Versus Two Different Internal Foci of Attention in Long-Distance Throwing

Kinematic Effects of Varying Adolescents' Attentional Instructions for Standing Long Jump

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