Effects of internal and external focus of attention on woodwind performance.

When playing a wind instrument, should the performer focus attention on his1 breathing, his fingers, the instrument keys, or the sound coming out of the instrument? This practical question of where to direct one's attention during movement activities has received considerable interest from the field of motor learning. Focusing on an object separate from the person (e.g., flute keys) or on the movement outcome (e.g., flute sound) is an external focus of attention (FOA; Wulf, Hos, & Prinz, 1998). Focusing on part of the body (e.g., fingers) is an internal FOA. Because FOA has rarely been investigated in musical contexts, this article will begin by reviewing research that studied the effects of FOA in general motor learning contexts. Next, it will examine theoretical explanations for these effects, discuss the few studies of FOA in music contexts, and then test the application of FOA with a basic task in woodwind performance.In 1998, motor learning specialists Wulf et al. (1998) began a significant line of research examining the effect of a learner's FOA while performing general (nonmusical) motor tasks. Their early laboratory studies used a balance apparatus and a ski-simulator. They found college participants performed movements best when focusing their attention externally rather than internally or when in a no-direction control group. What was particularly interesting about this study was that very slight differences in where participants actually put their attention still caused significant differences in the movement outcomes.The FOA construct has been examined in numerous laboratory and applied settings, including basketball, golf, rowing, swimming, kayak paddling, and dart throwing (for reviews, see Peh, Chow, & Davids, 2011; Wulf, 2013). Results of these investigations almost always show an external FOA led to better performance than an internal FOA (for an exception, see Poolton, Maxwell, Masters, & Raab, 2006). However, it should be noted that the motor tasks used in these studies are predominantly gross motor skills. In one list of studies reviewed by Wulf (2013), 53 studies used gross motor skills, whereas only one study was conducted by music researchers, using a fine motor skill (Duke, Cash, & Allen, 2011). Therefore, although there is considerable evidence supporting the benefits of an external FOA for gross motor skills, it is premature to generalize these findings to the fine motor skills frequently involved in instrumental musical performance.In addition to behavioral outcomes like increased accuracy when putting a golf ball, another way to evaluate the effects of internal and external FOAs is to measure muscular efficiency. Generally, when less energy is expended to produce a specified outcome, this indicates a more efficient movement (Wulf, 2013). Several FOA studies have included electromyography (EMG) to measure differences in muscle activity when participants adopted internal and external FOAs.During bicep curls (Vance, Wulf, Tollner, McNevin, & Mercer, 2004), leg extension/flexion (Kal, van der Kamp, & Houdijk, 2013), basketball free-throws (Zachry, Wulf, Mercer, & Bezodis, 2005), generating force with the foot (Lohse & Sherwood, 2012), and making a vertical jump (Wulf, Dufek, Lozano, & Pettigrew, 2010), an external FOA induced less muscle activity without compromising the outcome measure. In addition, Wulf et al. (2010) demonstrated coordination did not change as a result of FOA conditions while vertical jumping, and the internal FOA caused increased activity in muscles that were not necessary for the movement (Zachry et al., 2005).Neuroscientists have used fMRI to examine the neural correlates of FOA (Zentgraf et al., 2009; Zimmermann et al., 2012). One data collection protocol generated the data for these two publications. University students were trained to use either an internal ("concentrate on your moving fingers") or external ("concentrate on the keys that need to be pressed") FOA for a button pressing sequence. …