Influence of visual illusion and attentional focusing instruction in novice motor performance

To examine attentional focusing (AF) instruction mechanisms, the present study observed their novel interaction with a visual illusion environment. Wood et al. (2013) demonstrated longer quiet-eye durations and greater putting accuracy towards perceptually larger targets induced through Ebbinghaus illusion. Importantly, vision is proposed to mediate external focus benefits (e.g., Al-Abood, et al., 2002). De Fockert and Wu (2009) demonstrated that Ebbinghaus illusion effects are greater under high working memory load: greater resource availability supports selective attention efficiency. In line with this, recent AF explanations cite cognitive resources as potential mechanism: an internal focus uses greater working memory processing resources than an external focus (e.g., Poolton, et al., 2006). Would the visual environment interact with the instructional context?