注意の変化およびプレッシャーが知覚運動スキルの流暢性に及ぼす影響

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of attentional shifts and pressure on movement fluency in a perceptual and single-joint movement task. Participants (N = 24) moved an arm lever in an attempt to trace a spatiotemporal movement target on a computer display. They performed 100 acquisition trials followed by 20 test trials. For the test, the participants were randomly divided into the conscious processing group (n = 8), the distraction group (n = 8), or the pressure group (n = 8). For any test trials, the amplitude of the original movement pattern of the conscious processing group was enlarged to 130%.0 Furthermore, participants in the conscious processing group were instructed to be conscious of their arm movements in order to be aware of the enlarged trials. In the test, the distraction group performed a secondary task, which consisted in pressing a button as quickly as possible. The other group performed the test under pressure, which was induced by informing them that they would receive a cash reward or an electric stimulus contingent on their performance. The root mean squared error (RMSE) was measured as an index of performance, and the mean power frequency (MPF) of movement velocity was measured as an index of the movement fluency of the perceptual and single-joint movement task. In the distraction group alone, the RMSE increased from the last phase of acquisition to the test. In addition, the MPF of the processing resource shortage group decreased from the last phase of acquisition to the test. These findings indicated that the attentional shift resulting from a shortage of processing resources limited feedback control and led to a decrement in the performance of the perceptual motor skill.