Effect of Focus of Attention and Age on Motor Acquisition, Retention, and Transfer: A Randomized Trial

Michal Emanuel · Tal Jarus · Orit Bart

179 citations0/0 files storedPhysical Therapy

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Sport Psychology and Performance Motor Control and Adaptation Sports and Physical Education Research

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Adult participants benefit more from external focus than internal focus when learning a new motor skill. Because learners from different age groups use different learning strategies, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the effect of attention focus varies among children and adults. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Thirty-four children and 32 adults were randomly assigned to internal or external focus-of-attention practice groups. Throwing darts toward a static target, participants performed 50 acquisition trials, 20 retention trials, and 20 transfer trials. RESULTS: The results indicate that focus of attention varies between children and adults in accuracy and variability in the acquisition phase and in accuracy in the transfer phase. No interactions were found in the retention phase. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that external focus is more effective than internal focus in adults; therefore, physical therapists should instruct adult clients to focus their attention externally to facilitate motor learning. Physical therapists working with children should perhaps direct the client's attention internally; however, further study is needed.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 179 citations exist upstream.

References

2001The automaticity of complex motor skill learning as a function of attentional focus 1996Dexterity and its development 2002When paying attention becomes counterproductive: Impact of divided versus skill-focused attention on novice and experienced performance of sensorimotor skills.1998Instructions for Motor Learning: Differential Effects of Internal Versus External Focus of Attention 2001Directing attention to movement effects enhances learning: A review 2003Increasing the distance of an external focus of attention enhances learning 2002Enhancing the Learning of Sport Skills Through External-Focus Feedback 1999The Learning Advantages of an External Focus of Attention in Golf

Cited by

2010Focus of attention and its impact on movement behaviour 2011Neuromuscular Effects of Shifting the Focus of Attention in a Simple Force Production Task 2015Phenomenology and neurobiology of self disorder in schizophrenia: Primary factors 2016Focus of Attention in Children's Motor Learning: Examining the Role of Age and Working Memory 2018Considering a Holistic Focus of Attention as an Alternative to an External Focus

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.