Additive benefits of external focus and enhanced performance expectancy for motor learning
Abstract
The authors examined the individual and combined influences of 2 factors that have been shown to benefit motor learning: an external focus of attention and enhanced performance expectancies. Another purpose of this study was to gain further insight into the mechanisms underlying these variables. In a factorial design, participants learning a novel motor skill (i.e., throwing with the non-dominant arm) were or were not given external focus instructions, and were or were not provided bogus positive social-comparative feedback to enhance their expectancies. This resulted in 4 groups: external focus, enhanced expectancy, external focus/enhanced expectancy and control. External focus instructions and enhanced expectancies had additive benefits for learning: the external focus/enhanced expectancy group demonstrated the greatest throwing accuracy on both retention and transfer tests, while the accuracy scores of the external focus and enhanced expectancy groups were lower, but higher than those of the control group. Furthermore, self-efficacy was increased by both external focus and enhanced expectancy, and predicted retention and transfer performance. Positive affect was heightened in the enhanced expectancy and external focus/enhanced expectancy groups after practice and predicted transfer performance. The findings suggest that the learning benefits of an external focus and enhanced expectancies mediate learning through partially different mechanisms.
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Self-efficacy arising from success experiences during motor task practice predicts performance on later tests of motor learning.
“importantly, self-efficacy resulting from success experiences during the practice of a motor task is predictive of performance on subsequent tests of motor learning (Pascua, Wulf, & Lewthwaite, 2015;Stevens, Anderson, O'Dwyer, & Williams, 2012;Wulf, Chiviacowsy, & Cardozo, 2014) or performance (Rosenqvist & Skans, 2015).”
From Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning (2016) · cites this paper as Pascua, Wulf, & Lewthwaite, 2015
Even without explicit internal focus instructions, learners tend to focus on movement form and body movements.
“Interestingly, interviews have shown that, even without explicit internal focus instructions, learners tend to focus on movement form and body movements (Pascua, Wulf, and Lewthwaite, 2015).”
From Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning (2016) · cites this paper as Pascua, Wulf, and Lewthwaite, 2015
External attentional focus contributes to enhanced expectancies for positive outcomes.
“Furthermore, by reliably producing more successful performance outcomes and ease of movement as noted above, an external attentional focus contributes to enhanced expectancies for positive outcomes (Pascua, Wulf, and Lewthwaite, 2015;Shafizadeh, Platt, & Bahram, 2013;Wulf, Chiviacowsky, & Cardozo, 2014) through mechanisms described in earlier sections.”
From Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning (2016) · cites this paper as Pascua, Wulf, and Lewthwaite, 2015
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References 39 · Cited by 117
- Authors
- Pascua, L. A. M., Wulf, G., & Lewthwaite, R.
- Affiliations
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas (US)
- Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pascua, Luigi A. M.
- ORCID
- Wulf, Gabriele
- Venue
- Journal of Sports Sciences
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2014-05-29
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 58-66
- ISSN
- 0264-0414 (ISSN-L)
- 1466-447X
- OpenAlex
- W1969346266
- Cited by
- 117
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 4
- FWCI
- 15.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Sports Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Scholarship - UNLV (University of Nevada Reno) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Sport Psychology and Performance
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation › Sports and Physical Education Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Keywords
- external attention, performance expectancy, motor learning, self-efficacy, positive affect, throwing accuracy, retention, transfer, non-dominant arm
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attention, Female, Humans, Male, Motor Skills, Practice, Psychological, Psychomotor Performance, Retention, Psychology, Transfer, Psychology, Self Efficacy, Young Adult
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