The Distance Effect and Dual Task on Attentional Focus Cues During a Bimanual Task

Motor performance has been shown to be superior when focusing on a physically farther environmental cue (external focus-far, EF-far) instead of a cue proximal to the body (EF-near). However, little is known about whether these foci affect bimanual tasks. Further, the effect of visual information on attentional focus is unclear. In the present study, healthy young participants were assigned to one of the internal focus (IF; n = 17), EF-far (n = 17), or EF-near (n = 17) groups and completed a tracking task on one day and two dual tasks on another day. During the dual-task tests, participants responded to auditory or visual stimuli while performing the primary tracking task. Results showed that both EF groups outperformed the IF group. Our results revealed that the EF groups improved in movement time and error, but the IF group did not improve in errors across the experiment. No distance effect was found. Also, the EF benefits over IF did not appear until later blocks of trials. Regarding the effect of vision, the distance effect was evident only during the auditory dual task condition, but not during the visual dual task condition when the primary task was distracted by the visual secondary task.