Effects of attentional strategies and anxiety constraints on perceptual-motor organisation of rhythmical arm movements.
Effects of anxiety on perceptual-motor organisation of rhythmical forearm movements were examined using an interrupted time series design with staggered baselines. Participants were exposed to repeated baseline sessions interrupted with two anxiety-inducing sessions. Results showed that under moderate levels of anxiety, determined from CSAI-2 and heart rate data, phase relations between oscillating forearms became more stable in in-phase (0 degrees ) and anti-phase (180 degrees ) modes, although these patterns were not maintained in baseline sessions following the anxiety manipulation. Data were consistent with participants employing a strategy of allocating greater attentional effort in stabilizing preferred co-ordination patterns under anxiety-inducing conditions. Results suggest that anxiety can temporarily act as a source of behavioural information, leading to the re-parameterisation of participants' intrinsic dynamics.
Court
M L J
ML
Dunedin University, New Zealand.
Bennett
S J
SJ
Williams
A M
AM
Davids
K
K
D000204:Activity Cycles; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety; D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D011434:Proprioception / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors