C.2.2 Attentional Control

Adapted from class notes.

Attention

• Attention = Concentration of mental activity on current tasks, or active awareness of what you are observing

• Concentration: The intentiaonl direction of mental effort to current situation

• Selected Attention: Ignoring distractions while focusing on important information

• Divided Attention: The ability to multitask, do more than one action at the same time

• Focus is the central point of your attention

• Concentration is the ability to perform with a clear and present focus

• Attention would be awareness of the aspects of a game, such as the opponents, goal, ball, teammates, etc

• Concentration would be keeping your mind on the game and not other thoughts

• Focus might be where a ball is at a certain point in time

Situational Awareness

• The ability to understand what is going on around an individual. Decision making can be based on time, score, opponents, goals, etc

• Attentional flexibility is the ability to change focus depending on the situation

• This is easiest when there are no time demands

Concentration and Distractors

• Internal Distractors: Distractions that result from within the self

• External Distractions: Distractions that result from outside the self such as sounds, rights, or other sensations

• Five building blocks of concentration:

  • 1. Decide to concentrate

  • 2. Focus on one thought

  • 3. Do what you are thinking

  • 4. Focusing on uncontrollable factors is a loss of concentration

  • Focus on outward actions, not inward thoughts

Controlled Distraction

• Identifying distraction sources helps focus on an individual task

• Adjusting performance so that distractions are controlled (as best they can be)

• Deliberate Decisions: Intentionally making the decision to be focused

• Performance Goals: A goal that helps turn attention to current task

• Trigger Words: Words that help direct focus to singular task, e.g. “balance”

• Routines: Doing the same actions prior to every task to help combat negative thoughts and reduce cognitive load

• Mental Practice: Visualizing/imagining a task being done to help identify possible distractions or other events

Types of Attentional Focus

• Broad - Focus on many different aspects of competition environment

• Narrow - Focus on only one or two actions

• External - Focus is outside the body

• Internal - Focus is on thoughts and feelings

Arousal and Attentional Narrowing

• Level of arousal is the amount of physical and psychological activation ranging from relaxed to intense

  • High arousal increases heart rate, breathing rate, and muscle tension. Associated with excitement, anxiety, and stress

  • Different levels of arousal are required for different competition types. High for fast paced and strength, low for slow and relaxed where fine motor control is necessary

• Attentional narrowing is an involuntary focus of attention caused by high arousal. Often noisen (irrelevant signals) get ignored

• Can be beneficial to filter out unnecessary information but can be detrimental if too much is filtered out

Attentional Focus and Motor Learning

• Attentional focus can be:

  • Associative or dissociative (focusing or blocking)

  • Broad or narrow

  • Internal or external

• Skilled performance is associated with:

  • Effectiveness - How well a skill is performed. Accuracy, consistency, or reliability

  • Efficiency - The amount of effort put in to a skill

• External focus of attention puts focus on what should happen, rather than what the body shouyld do (focusing thoughts on particular actions)

  • External: A basketball needs to have a particular path

  • Internal: My wrist needs to move in this way

  • Evidence of increases success for kicking and throwing (hit a certain part of a ball, rather than have your foot be in a certain positionb)

• Open skills, where conditions change unpredictably, have better reuslts when the individual is better at adapting and puts goals more distally (like reaching a certain point) rather than near (such as maintaining technique)

Non-Linear Pedagogy and Attentional Control

• By shifting thoughts to external goals, rathert than internal focus, individuals can adapt on their own rather than through a conscious control

• Adaptations are then based on individual needs

• Feedback and questioning are effective coaching techniques to shift focus to specific features of a skill