Kupper Christian, Roemer Karen, Jusko Elizabeth, Zentgraf Karen
Institute of Sport Sciences, Department of Movement Science and Training in Sports, Faculty of Psychology and Sports Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
Department of Health Sciences, College of Education and Professional Studies, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2020 Feb 21;11:125. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00125. eCollection 2020.
The role of attentional focusing in motor tasks has been highlighted frequently. The "internal-external" dimension has emerged, but also the spatial distance between body and attended location. In two experiments, an extended attentional focus paradigm was introduced to investigate distality effects of attentional foci on balance performance. First, the distality of the coordinates of the point of focus was varied between a proximal and distal position on an artificial tool attached to the body. Second, the distance of the displayed effect on the wall was varied between a 2.5 and 5 m condition. Subjects were instructed to focus on controlling either a proximal or distal spot on a tool attached to their head, represented by two laser pointers. Subsequently, they needed to visually track their own body-movement effect of one of the laser pointers at a wall while completing various single leg stance tasks. Center of pressure (COP) sway was analyzed using a linear method (classic sway variables) as well as a non-linear method (multiscale entropy). In addition, laser trajectories were videotaped and served as additional performance outcome measure. Experiment 1 revealed differences in balance performance under proximal compared to distal attentional focus conditions. Moreover, experiment 2 yielded differences in balance-related sway measures and laser data between the 2.5 and 5 m condition of the visually observable movement effect. In conclusion, varying the distality of the point of focus between proximal and distal impacted balance performance. However, this effect was not consistent across all balance tasks. Relevantly, the distality of the movement effect shows a significant effect on balance plus laser performance with advantages in more distal conditions. This research emphasizes the importance of the spatial distality of movement effects for human behavior.
注意力聚焦在运动任务中的作用已被频繁强调。“内部-外部”维度已出现，同时身体与被关注位置之间的空间距离也受到关注。在两项实验中，引入了一种扩展的注意力聚焦范式，以研究注意力焦点的远侧效应对平衡性能的影响。首先，聚焦点坐标的远侧性在附着于身体的人工工具上的近端和远端位置之间变化。其次，在墙壁上显示的效果的距离在2.5米和5米的条件之间变化。受试者被指示专注于控制附着在他们头上的工具上的近端或远端点，由两个激光指示器表示。随后，他们需要在完成各种单腿站立任务时，在墙壁上视觉跟踪其中一个激光指示器的自身身体运动效果。使用线性方法（经典摆动变量）以及非线性方法（多尺度熵）分析压力中心（COP）摆动。此外，录制激光轨迹并将其用作额外的性能结果测量。实验1揭示了近端注意力聚焦条件与远端注意力聚焦条件下平衡性能的差异。此外，实验2在视觉可观察运动效果的2.5米和5米条件之间产生了与平衡相关的摆动测量和激光数据的差异。总之，在近端和远端之间改变聚焦点的远侧性会影响平衡性能。然而，这种效应在所有平衡任务中并不一致。相关地，运动效果的远侧性对平衡和激光性能显示出显著影响，在更远端的条件下具有优势。这项研究强调了运动效果的空间远侧性对人类行为的重要性。
