. The purpose of this experiment was to examine the role of attention in the performance of a new motor skill (cup stacking), to determine whether the level of attentional focus on the task impacted performance of the skill. The cup stacking experiment was performed under three different conditions; focused attention, response dual task, and cognitive dual task. Condition one was performed by solely focusing on completion of the task, while condition two, required the participant to respond to questions asked by an experimenter during the trial. The third condition involved listening to a sequence of numbers produced by the experimenter during the task, without responding until the end of the trial. After analyzing the results from the cup
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Participants were then instructed to input the required settings for the task (see Table 2). Participants performed five trials with their dominant hand while adjusting the movement amplitude and target width with each trial. These adjustments increased the index of difficulty. Index of difficulty is defined as a quantitative measure of the difficulty of performing a skill involving both speed and accuracy requirements (Magill & Anderson, 2014). Following five trials with their dominant hand, participants repeated the same steps with their non-dominant hand. To begin each trial, once settings had been adjusted, the participant was instructed to press start and place the cursor on the red line making an hourglass appear on the screen. The hourglass was a warning sign and would disappear after five seconds, indicating to the participant to start the taps. For the taps the participant was instructed to move the cursor between the target widths and click (tap) the mouse. Each trial was ten seconds in length. When the trial had finished the screen returned back to the settings menu where number of taps were recorded. Once the five trials of both the dominant and non-dominant hand were completed, movement time was calculated by dividing ten seconds (the duration of each trial), by the number of taps recorded in each trial. Results were then compared with three other participants, and group means for each trial were calculated and recorded for each
Participants were then instructed to input the required settings for the task (see Table 2). Participants performed five trials with their dominant hand while adjusting the movement amplitude and target width with each trial. These adjustments increased the index of difficulty. Index of difficulty is defined as a quantitative measure of the difficulty of performing a skill involving both speed and accuracy requirements (Magill & Anderson, 2014). Following five trials with their dominant hand, participants repeated the same steps with their non-dominant hand. To begin each trial, once settings had been adjusted, the participant was instructed to press start and place the cursor on the red line making an hourglass appear on the screen. The hourglass was a warning sign and would disappear after five seconds, indicating to the participant to start the taps. For the taps the participant was instructed to move the cursor between the target widths and click (tap) the mouse. Each trial was ten seconds in length. When the trial had finished the screen returned back to the settings menu where number of taps were recorded. Once the five trials of both the dominant and non-dominant hand were completed, movement time was calculated by dividing ten seconds (the duration of each trial), by the number of taps recorded in each trial. Results were then compared with three other participants, and group means for each trial were calculated and recorded for each