Attention and Motor Skill Learning - Hardcover

Gabriele Wulf

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 073606270X ISBN 13: 9780736062701

Publisher: Human Kinetics(ADVANTAGE) (Consignment), 2007

Synopsis

Attention and Motor Skill Learning explores how a person's focus of attention affects motor performance and, in particular, the learning of motor skills. It synthesizes the knowledge coming from recent research examining the effects of attentional focus on motor performance and learning, and it provides practical implications for both instructional and rehabilitative settings. Attention and Motor Skill Learning challenges traditional views that the method of learning a motor skill involves focusing attention on each part of the skill and internalizing proper execution. Instead, author Gabriele Wulf argues that the learning of new motor skills suffers when attentional focus is on the coordination of movements. When attention is directed to the desired movement effect, however, performance levels rise. Not only is a higher level of performance often achieved faster with an external rather than an internal attention focus, but the skill is retained better. The advantages of external focus apply to a variety of skills and skill levels and may be used while instructing athletes, children, and those with physical impairments as well as in any setting in which effective and efficient training of motor skills is a concern.

About this title

Product Description:

Intended for motor behaviour and cognitive psychology courses, and for professionals, this title explores how focus of attention can affect motor performance, particularly the learning of motor skills. It details how an individual's focus changes with age and type of task, allowing readers to apply the information across a variety of settings.

About the Author:

Gabriele Wulf, PhD, is a professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Dr. Wulf has more than 100 publications in motor learning and control and 35 publications related to attentional focus and motor skills. She initiated the line of research described in this book external versus internal focus of attention in the mid-1990s. She has been a section editor for Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal and has been an editorial board member for Journal of Motor Behavior, Human Movement Science, and International Journal of Fitness, as well as an international advisory board Member for Physiotherapy. She also served as secretary and treasurer from 2002 to 2004 for the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity.

About this edition

• Publisher: Human Kinetics(ADVANTAGE) (Consignment)
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 073606270X
• ISBN 13: 9780736062701
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224