Attentional Control, Distractors, and Motor Performance

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Abstract
This study addressed the nature of potential auditory and visual distractors and their influence on the learning of two motor tasks. The extent to which an attentional-focus training program could be used to overcome external and unpredictable distractor occurrences was determined. Eight treatment condi- tions were created by crossing two levels of attentional training and four levels of distractors (noise, light, noise and light, and no distractor). Ten subjects were randomly assigned to each treatment condition, and two target-throwing tasks were performed with the nondominant hand. Thrget accuracy for the 80 trials was recorded by a microcomputer. The separate Attentional 'Itain- ing x Distractor x nial Block (2 x 4 x 6) mixed-design analyses revealed four significant interactions. Overall, the data indicated that the attentional-focus training group was more accurate and consistent than the no-attentional- training group early and later in learning. In addition, distractor groups that experienced attentional training displayed less absolute constant error and to- tal variability across trial blocks 2-6 (primary task) and 1-2 (second task).

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