Change in attentional focus through the practice of a motor skill

This experiment investigated the effects of changing the attentional focus during the process of learning a motor skill. Four experimental groups (internal, external, internal-external and external-internal focus) and one control group practiced a dart throwing task. During the acquisition phase, two experimental groups had only one focusing attention (internal or external focus), and other two experimental groups had focus of attention changed half way through the amount of practice (internal-external or external-internal focus). The results of the retention test showed that the internal-external focus resulted in a more consistent performance. These results suggest the existence of a relationship between the effects of attentional focus and level of learning