TY - JOUR
T1 - Attending to the Execution of a Complex Sensorimotor Skill
T2 - Expertise Differences, Choking, and Slumps
AU - Gray, Robert
PY - 2004/3
Y1 - 2004/3
N2 - A simulated baseball batting task was used to compare the relative effects of attending to extraneous information (tone frequency) and attending to skill execution (direction of bat movement) on performance and swing kinematics and to evaluate how these effects differ as a function of expertise. The extraneous dual task degraded batting performance in novices but had no significant effect on experts. The skill-focused dual task increased batting errors and movement variability for experts but had no significant effect on novices. For expert batters, accuracy in the skill-focused dual task was inversely related to the current level of performance. Expert batters were significantly more accurate in the skill-focused dual task when placed under pressure. These findings indicate that the attentional focus varies substantially across and within performers with different levels of expertise.
AB - A simulated baseball batting task was used to compare the relative effects of attending to extraneous information (tone frequency) and attending to skill execution (direction of bat movement) on performance and swing kinematics and to evaluate how these effects differ as a function of expertise. The extraneous dual task degraded batting performance in novices but had no significant effect on experts. The skill-focused dual task increased batting errors and movement variability for experts but had no significant effect on novices. For expert batters, accuracy in the skill-focused dual task was inversely related to the current level of performance. Expert batters were significantly more accurate in the skill-focused dual task when placed under pressure. These findings indicate that the attentional focus varies substantially across and within performers with different levels of expertise.
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U2 - 10.1037/1076-898X.10.1.42
DO - 10.1037/1076-898X.10.1.42
M3 - Article
C2 - 15053701
AN - SCOPUS:1842582238
SN - 1076-898X
VL - 10
SP - 42
EP - 54
JO - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied
JF - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied
IS - 1
ER -