The Influence Of Attentional Focus Cueing On Jump-and-reach Performance

Abstract

Movement cueing involves the provision of verbal instructions to performers prior to movement execution. Research literature examining attentional focus cueing has clearly documented the performance advantages of adopting an external focus (e.g., focusing on the center of a basketball hoop) over an internal focus (e.g., focusing on flicking the wrist; Al-Abood et al., 2002; Wulf et al., 1999; Zachry et al., 2005). Most commonly, deviation from a target has been employed as the measure of objective success, across a variety of specialized sport skills (for a review, see Wulf, 2013). PURPOSE: Consistent with this body of research, it is reasonable to hypothesize that when cueing individuals performing a vertical jump-and-reach task, an external focusing cue would lead to a superior task performance compared to an internal focusing cue. Preliminary research has provided support for this assertion (i.e., Wulf & Dufek, 2009; Wulf et al., 2007); however, these preliminary quasi-experiments employed relatively small sample sizes (i.e., ns = 8-12 participants). The current experiment examined the effect of attentional focus cueing on performance of a vertical jump-and-reach task. METHODS: Sixty-five college-aged participants were randomly assigned to one of three cueing conditions: control (n = 21), external focus (n = 22), or internal focus (n = 22). A Vertec™ measurement device was used to measure jump height. RESULTS: Interestingly, and contrary to the attentional focus literature, results demonstrated similar jump-and-reach performances between the external- (Mexternal = 19.97in.; SD = 5.38) and internal-focus groups (Minternal = 18.91in.; SD = 5.31; p > 0.05), as well as similar performances between the external focus and control groups (Mcontrol = 21.55in.; SD = 4.88;p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These findings question the applicability of the external focus effect on the performance of less complex motor skills, however, other possible explanations for the current results and future research suggestions are also offered.