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The effect of state anxiety on the online and offline control of fast target-directed movements

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Abstract

In target-directed aiming, afferent information is used to adjust limb trajectories during movement execution (i.e. online) and to enhance the programming of subsequent trials (i.e. offline). The objective of the present study was to determine the influence of state anxiety on both online and offline afferent information processing for the first time. Participants practiced either a directional aiming task (Experiment 1) or an amplitude aiming task (Experiment 2) without anxiety before being transferred to a high anxiety condition. In both experiments, results revealed that anxiety resulted in a decrement in performance. Furthermore, use of afferent information to adjust movement trajectories online was disrupted when movements were performed with anxiety, whereas there were no differences in the offline processing of afferent information between the low anxiety and high anxiety conditions.

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Notes

  1. The analysis between acquisition and transfer did not reveal any significant interactions involving target. As a result, and for brevity, the data within experimental phases were collapsed across targets when conducting the analysis.

  2. The utilisation of kinematic markers in Experiment 2 (as opposed to the movement percentiles used in Experiment 1) to investigate movement variability is in line with previous research (see Khan et al., 2006 for a review). These methodological differences in calculating variability in direction and amplitude tasks stems from the fact that kinematic markers are not readily available in direction aiming tasks where no amplitude component of movement is required. For amplitude aiming tasks, there are distinct acceleration and deceleration phases making the identification of kinematic markers straightforward. The trajectory markers used in both experiments enabled us to assess variability profiles early (25 %, pka), middle (50 %, pkv) and towards the end (75 %, pkna) of the limb trajectories.

  3. The utilisation of the track-way was to ensure that the task did not have any direction requirements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences, Institute for the Psychology of Elite Performance, Bangor University, George Building, Holyhead Rd, Gwynedd, Bangor, LL57 2PX, UK

    Gavin P. Lawrence & Lew Hardy

  2. Department of Kinesiology, Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada

    Michael A. Khan

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  1. Gavin P. Lawrence
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  2. Michael A. Khan
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  3. Lew Hardy
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Correspondence to Gavin P. Lawrence.

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Lawrence, G.P., Khan, M.A. & Hardy, L. The effect of state anxiety on the online and offline control of fast target-directed movements. Psychological Research 77, 422–433 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-012-0440-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-012-0440-1

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