Exercise induced fatigue can have a negative impact on motor skill performance. While part of the decline is attributable to physiological factors that directly influence the coordination of movement, psychological factors may also contribute. Typically, motor learning environments encourage the accumulation of task-relevant declarative knowledge, which can be depended on to consciously support performance. The literature suggests that skills learnt in this way are vulnerable to demanding performance environments, including those in which the performer is fatigued. Recent empirical work has demonstrated that ‘implicit’ motor learning environments, devised to limit declarative knowledge buildup and/or dependence on working memory, promote resilient skill performance even after exhaustive fatigue protocols. Such findings imply that dependence on declarative knowledge to support motor skill execution may be a limiting factor under physiologically fatigue. However, it remains unclear the effect fatigue has on attentional resources, such as working memory. Using established experimental paradigms and EEG methodology, a research project was designed to investigate. Two explanations were considered: (1) fatigue distracts attention away from the control of movement or (2) fatigue directs attention to the skill, which interferes with automated control of the movement. In this study novice participants were allowed to freely accumulate declarative knowledge before completing a targeted muscle-fatigue protocol. A probe response paradigm assessed participants’ ability to recall the position of movement at the time a tone sounded, under the assumption that better recall reflects skill-focused attention. Neural activity was monitored by wireless EEG technology. Neural co-activation (or coherence) between brain regions associated with motor planning (Fz or F3) and with verbal-analytical processing (T3) has been suggested to reflect conscious control of motor skills. Therefore, a fatigue induced increase in T3-F3 coherence can be interpreted as increased conscious involvement in movement control, whereas, a decrease suggests a shift of attention away from movement control. The data collected suggests that to some extent fatigue raises visual-spatial and verbal-analytical contributions to motor control, but highlights methodological issues and limitations of the work. / published_or_final_version / Human Performance / Master / Master of Philosophy

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The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of evaluation apprehension and achievement on subjects' internal causal attributions in a physical skills task. One hundred and twenty private school male students, aged 12 to 19, were assigned to one of two conditions of evaluation. Feedback on level of achievement was given upon completion of the task and the students asked to complete a seven item attribution questionnaire. A 2 x 2 (evaluation x achievement) multivariate analysis of variance was used to examine differences across conditions among the four internal attributions. The results indicated that the subjects' attributions were affected by evaluation, as well as different levels of achievement. The predicted interactive effect of evaluation and achievement on attribution was not found. It was concluded that there was a flaw in the logic which suggested that internal attributions would be affected by an interaction of evaluation apprehension and achievement.

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The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of priming on performance of a closed motor task (dart throwing). The priming task involved either reading or listening to one of three different sets of instructions explaining the mechanics of dart throwing: positive (emphasizing what to do or focus on), negative (emphasizing what not to do or focus on), and neutral. One hundred-twenty four participants were randomly assigned to 4 experimental groups (n = 21 for each) and 2 control groups (n = 20 for each) based on media (verbal or written) and direction (positive, negative, control) of script. Each participant completed a total of 6 blocks (3 dart-throws per block). In subsequent order, participants completed Blocks 1 and 2 (practice trials), the priming task, and then Blocks 3 through 6 (experimental trials).A 2 x 3 x 6 (Media x Direction x Block) ANOVA with repeated measures on the last factor found only a significant main effect for Block. However, tests of within-subject contrasts indicated a Block x Direction interaction from Block 1 to Block 2 and from Block 2 to Block 3, with the most dramatic change in performance seen in the group receiving the negative instructions. The results indicated that negative instruction can have an immediate negative impact on performance that is not seen with positive instruction. This negative impact can be overcome, however, if the performer is left alone to practice after receiving the negative instruction. This study has provided additional evidence that priming can influence motor responses. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

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