Type of Document	Thesis
Author	Land, William Marshall
Author's Email Address	wml04@fsu.edu
URN	etd-08232007-135658
Title	Facilitation of Automaticity: Sport-Relevant vs. Non-Relevant Secondary Tasks
Degree	Master of Science
Department	Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title David Eccles Committee Member Gershon Tenenbaum Committee Member Robert Eklund Committee Member
Keywords	Skill Acquisition Paradoxical Performance Movement Variability Intervention Explicit Monitoring
Date of Defense	2007-07-18
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract Recent literature on “choking under pressure” has focused on how pressure situations alter the deployment of cognitive resources – either by drawing attention towards execution, or by drawing attention away. Based on this insight, research has provided evidence that the use of secondary tasks designed to draw attention away from skill execution can be beneficial to performance under pressure. However, the types of secondary tasks employed to control attentional focus in previous studies have rarely been applicable in a real world sports environment. As a result, the present study bridged the gap between theory and practice by examining a practical golf relevant secondary task to prevent pressure induced performance failure. The study examined skilled (n = 20) and novice (n = 24) golfers on a putting task under high- and low-pressure, while carrying out two types of concurrent secondary tasks: a traditional secondary task consisting of random letter generation, and a sport-relevant task consisting of monitoring club head – ball impact. Putting performance was measured via both outcome and process-oriented approaches. Results revealed that both the non-relevant and sport-relevant secondary task prevented choking under pressure in skilled golfers, but also increased motion variability. Novice outcome performance was unaffected by the secondary task constraints, but exhibited lower kinematic variability under secondary task conditions. The study clarifies the underlying mechanisms that determine skill superiority under conditions that vary in attentional demands, while also shedding light on the relationship between attention and kinematic variability.
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