Article: Attentional focus effects as a function of task difficulty.

Key words: balance, focus of attention, motor performance, task difficulty

An individual's focus of attention can have a considerable effect on motor performance and learning. While it has long been known that expert performance tends to suffer if the performer directs his or her attention to the details of the action (e.g., Baumeister, 1984; Baumeister & Steinhilber, 1984) more recent studies have shown that, even for novice performers, directing attention to one's movement control is not effective and can be detrimental (e.g., Hodges & Lee, 1999; Singer, Lidor, & Cauraugh, 1993; Wulf & Weigelt, 1997). It has been demonstrated that performing and learning of ...

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