The Effects of Task Difficulty and Attentional Focus Instructions on Balance Task Performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of task difficulty and the effectiveness of attentional instructions (baseline, internal and external) on balance task performance. Recent studies have shown that performer’s focus of attention plays an important role in the performance and learning motor skills, specifically when the task is novel and challenging for the performer. Forty eight students participated in this study and were divided randomly into two groups. Participants in each group performed three 15 balance tasks on a digital stabilimeter under each three conditions; without instructions, internal attentional focus, and external attentional focus. The results indicated that the performance of the difficult task group under external attentional focus was significantly better than other two conditions, while there wasn’t any significant difference in sway index among baseline, external instructions and internal focus conditions in each task group. It means that external focus will be more effective if the task is more challenging for performer. Therefore, the results indicate that the effectiveness of attentional focus as a learning variable depends on the difficulty of task.