External Focus of Attention Reduces Cartilage Load During Drop Landings.

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of attentional focus instructions on acute changes in the transverse relaxation time (T2) of the femorotibial cartilage and in cartilage volume during repeated drop-jump landings. Ten healthy females (M = 20.4 ± 0.

Response of Knee Joint Biomechanics to Landing Under Internal and External Focus of Attention in Female Volleyball Players.

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of attentional focus instructions on the biomechanical variables associated with the risk of anterior cruciate ligament injury of the knee joint during a drop landing task using a time series analysis. Ten female volleyball players (age: 20.4 ± 0.

The Roles of Perceived Physical Education Competence, Enjoyment, and Persistence on Middle School Students' Physical Activity Engagement.

We examined gender and grade differences in the relationship between students' perceived competence, their enjoyment of physical education (PE), and their PA persistence on the frequency of their physical activity (PA). We also used structural equation modeling to assess the direct, indirect, and total effects of perceived competence and PE enjoyment on PA frequency through the mediator of PA persistence. Participants were 223 middle school students (115 boys, 108 girls) in grades 7 and 8.

External focus of attention enhances arm velocities during volleyball spike in young female players.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different volleyball-specific attentional focus instructions on arm velocities of a volleyball spike in young female volleyball players using the Statistical Parametric Mapping method. Twelve young female volleyball players (13.6 ± 0.

Steady, Aim, Fire! Optimized Instructions Enhance Performance and Reduce Intra-Trial Variability in a Shooting Task.

The present study examined the influence of the individual and sequential combination of the key components of OPTIMAL (Optimizing Performance Through Intrinsic Motivation and Attention for Learning) theory (i.e., enhanced expectancies, autonomy support, and external focus), on the performance of a laser-pistol shooting task.

Examining the Delivery of a Tailored Chinese Mind-Body Exercise to Low-Income Community-Dwelling Older Latino Individuals for Healthy Aging: Feasibility and Acceptability Study.

Background: Older Latino individuals are disproportionally affected by various chronic conditions including impairments in physical and cognitive functions, which are essential for healthy aging and independent living.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of FITxOlder, a 12-week mind-body exercise program, in community-dwelling low-income, predominantly older Latino individuals, and assess its preliminary effects on health parameters relevant to healthy aging and independent living.

Methods: This 12-week, single-arm, stage 1B feasibility study had a pre- and poststudy design.

Adapting Chinese Qigong Mind-Body Exercise for Healthy Aging in Older Community-Dwelling Low-income Latino Adults: Pilot Feasibility Study.

Background: Research translating the evidence for the benefit of mind-body exercise in older Latinos with limited access to community-based healthy aging programs is sparse.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of Function Improvement Exercises for Older Sedentary Community-Dwelling Latino Residents (FITxOlder), a Community Health Worker (CHW)-led, mobile technology-facilitated Chinese Qigong mind-body exercise program for healthy aging and to explore its impact on physical and cognitive function and quality of life (QoL) in older community-dwelling low-income Latino adults.

Methods: This study was designed as a Stage 1 feasibility study to develop and pilot-test FITxOlder.

Higher levels of physical activity buffered the negative effect of pain severity on physical frailty in older Latinx adults.

This cross-sectional study examined whether and to what extent physical activity (PA) mediated the effect of chronic pain on physical frailty in a sample of predominantly older Latinx adults. Study participants were 118 community-dwelling older adults in southwest United States. Physical frailty was measured by a summary score of physical function tests.

Children's motor imagery modality dominance modulates the role of attentional focus in motor skill learning.

We investigated whether children's motor imagery dominance modulated the relationship between attentional focus and motor learning of a tossing task. One hundred and thirty-eight boys (age: M = 10.13, SD = 0.

External relative to internal attentional focus enhances motor performance and learning in visually impaired individuals.

Research has demonstrated the advantages of an external relative to internal focus of attention for enhancing motor performance and learning across diverse tasks, contexts and populations. However, research has yet to examine whether this finding holds true for individuals who have a major visual impairment in discrete and locomotion-based continuous motor tasks. In experiment 1, twenty-four visually impaired participants were asked to kick a soccer ball with their dominant foot to a target 7 meters away.

Priming of complex action via movement contingent sensory effects.

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to examine whether movement contingent sensory effects could be used to prime and facilitate motor performance on a ball-tossing task.

Design: The ball-tossing task was performed across two consecutive days, and consisted of an acquisition phase and a test phase. During the acquisition phase, participants (N = 30) practiced an underhanded ball tossing task to a near and far target (N = 360 total, n = 180 each distance).

The Influence of Attentional Focus Instructions and Vision on Jump Height Performance.

Purpose: Studies have suggested that the use of visual information may underlie the benefit associated with an external focus of attention. Recent studies exploring this connection have primarily relied on motor tasks that involve manipulation of an object (object projection). The present study examined whether vision influences the effect of attentional focus on the performance of body movements through space (body projection).

Action Effects and Task Knowledge: The Influence of Anticipatory Priming on the Identification of Task-Related Stimuli in Experts.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the extent to which anticipation of an action's perceptual effect primes identification of task-related stimuli. Specifically, skilled (n = 16) and novice (n = 24) tennis players performed a choice-reaction time (CRT) test in which they identified whether the presented stimulus was a picture of a baseball bat or tennis racket. Following their response, auditory feedback associated with either baseball or tennis was presented.

Effects of Physical Practice and Imagery Practice on Bilateral Transfer in Learning a Sequential Tapping Task.

Recent research on bilateral transfer suggests that imagery training can facilitate the transfer of motor skill from a trained limb to that of an untrained limb above and beyond that of physical practice. To further explore this effect, the present study examined the influence of practice duration and task difficulty on the extent to which imagery training and physical training influences bilateral transfer of a sequential key pressing task. In experiment 1, participants trained on the key pressing task using their non-dominant arm under one of three conditions (physical practice, imagery practice, and no practice).

Perceptual-Cognitive Changes During Motor Learning: The Influence of Mental and Physical Practice on Mental Representation, Gaze Behavior, and Performance of a Complex Action.

Despite the wealth of research on differences between experts and novices with respect to their perceptual-cognitive background (e.g., mental representations, gaze behavior), little is known about the change of these perceptual-cognitive components over the course of motor learning.

Visual and skill effects on soccer passing performance, kinematics, and outcome estimations.

The role of visual information and action representations in executing a motor task was examined from a mental representations approach. High-skill (n = 20) and low-skill (n = 20) soccer players performed a passing task to two targets at distances of 9.14 and 18.

Mental representation and mental practice: experimental investigation on the functional links between motor memory and motor imagery.

Recent research on mental representation of complex action has revealed distinct differences in the structure of representational frameworks between experts and novices. More recently, research on the development of mental representation structure has elicited functional changes in novices' representations as a result of practice. However, research investigating if and how mental practice adds to this adaptation process is lacking.

From action representation to action execution: exploring the links between cognitive and biomechanical levels of motor control.

Along with superior performance, research indicates that expertise is associated with a number of mediating cognitive adaptations. To this extent, extensive practice is associated with the development of general and task-specific mental representations, which play an important role in the organization and control of action. Recently, new experimental methods have been developed, which allow for investigating the organization and structure of these representations, along with the functional structure of the movement kinematics.

Whole-body posture planning in anticipation of a manual prehension task: prospective and retrospective effects.

This study examined the extent to which the anticipation of a manual action task influences whole-body postural planning and orientation. Our participants walked up to a drawer, opened the drawer, then grasped and moved an object in the drawer to another location in the same drawer. The starting placement of the object within the drawer and the final placement of the object in the drawer were varied across trials in either a blocked design (i.

Examination of visual information as a mediator of external focus benefits.

Attunement to visual information has been suggested to mediate the performance advantage associated with adopting an external focus of attention (e.g., Al-Abood, Bennett, Moreno Hernandez, Ashford, & Davids, 2002; Magill, 1998).

Mental representations as an underlying mechanism for human performance.

This chapter presents a theoretical framework, which is supported by empirical evidence, where changes in human performance are accounted for by changes in mental representation structure (MRS). More specifically, the knowledge base, represented in the form of mental representations, controls the perceptual, cognitive, and motor systems when interacting with the environment. Once this interaction induces pressure, changes in the MRS lead to respective changes in the function of attention, anticipation, long-term working memory, the control system, and the motor systems.

A conceptual framework for studying emotions-cognitions-performance linkage under conditions that vary in perceived pressure.

A unified conceptual framework, which integrates the structural components of human performance, such as emotional processes (i.e., feelings, mood), cognitive processes and structures (e.