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KMID : 1206220060130030077
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Journal of Korean Academy of Physical Therapy Science
2006 Volume.13 No. 3 p.77 ~ p.84
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The Effect of Attentional Focus on Performance of Task
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Roh Jung-Suk
Kim Jang-Hwan
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Abstract
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The purpose of this study is to introduce the effect of attentional focus on performance of task. Previous studies has shown that motor learning can be enhanced by directing performers’s attention to the effects of their movements(external focus), rather than to the body movement producing the effects(internal focus). Wulf and colleagues have invoked the ’constrained action hypothesis’ to explain the comparative benefits of adopting an external rather than an internal focus of attention. This hypothesis proposed that when performers utilize an internal focus of attention, they may actually constrain or interfere with automatic control processes that would normally regulate the movement, whereas an external focus of attention allows the motor system to more naturally self-organize. Electromyography(EMG) was used to determine neuromuscular correlates of external versus internal focus differences. EMG activity was lower with an external relative to an internal focus. This suggest that an external focus of attention enhances movement economy, and presumably reduces ’noise’ in the motor system that hampers fine movement control. Focusing on a more remote effect seems to facilitate the discriminability of the effect from the body movements that produced it and to be more beneficial than focusing on a very close effects. There might be an optimal distance of the effect, at which ti wis easily distinguishable from the body movement but at which it is also still possible for the performer to relate this effect to the movement techniques. Future Studies of motor learning of patient need to accommodate these new finding and account for the role of the learner’s attentional focus and its influencing on learning.
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KEYWORD
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Focus of attention, Constrained action hypothesis
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