Skill-based changes in motor performance from attentional focus manipulations: a kinematic analysis.
In the present paper, expert and novice law enforcement officers performed a handgun shooting task under varied attention-demanding conditions; outcome (i.e. accuracy, consistency) and movement kinematics were measured (i.e. within and between-trial variability (BTV) of forearm and upper arm absolute angle). Using a dual-task paradigm, we directed participants' attention towards either a skill-relevant aspect of movement execution or to a skill-irrelevant distractor and compared their data to a single-task control condition. The results showed that experts' BTV in their upper arm increased during dual-tasks relative to control, but performance was similar across all three conditions. In contrast, novices' performance was poorer during both dual-tasks relative to control, but limited changes in movement kinematics were observed. This data suggests that attention demanding situations trigger experts' ability to adapt their movement pattern to maintain end-point control. The data for novices are less clear. Implications for future research are discussed. Practitioner Summary: Expert and novice law enforcement officials completed a shooting task under baseline and attention-demanding situations. Experts outperformed novices under all conditions, but exhibited increased variability in their upper arm position while shooting during attention-demanding compared to baseline conditions. Novices' movement data remained variable throughout all conditions. The data suggest that experts are able to maintain shooting performance during an attention-demanding situation by adopting a functional movement strategy.
a Department of Kinesiology , University of North Carolina at Greensboro , Greensboro , NC , USA.
Louisa D
LD
Raisbeck
b Department of Psychology , Wichita State University , Wichita , KS , USA.
Joel
J
Suss
a Department of Kinesiology , University of North Carolina at Greensboro , Greensboro , NC , USA.
Jed A
JA
Diekfuss
c College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University , East Lansing , MI , USA.
Erich
E
Petushek
d Department of Psychology, School of Human and Health Sciences , University of Huddersfield , Huddersfield , UK.
Paul
P
Ward
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000328:Adult; D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D005389:Firearms; D006801:Humans; D035846:Law Enforcement; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
Attentional focus; adaptation; compensation; dual-task; skill