Open AccessDisruption of kinematic coordination in throwing under stress
Author(s) -
Higuchi Takahiro
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
japanese psychological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5884
pISSN - 0021-5368
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5884.00142
Subject(s) - automaticity , throwing , kinematics , psychology , task (project management) , physical medicine and rehabilitation , cognitive psychology , engineering , neuroscience , cognition , medicine , mechanical engineering , physics , systems engineering , classical mechanics
The present study tested the conscious‐control theory of the relationship between stress and performance. Performers under stress conditions consciously attempted to control their movements, disrupting the automaticity of control. Twenty‐two male subjects (11 in Experiment 1 and 11 in Experiment 2) performed an underhand ball‐throwing task using the non‐dominant hand. The inter‐trial variability of two kinematic measures was analyzed, namely arm‐joint coordination during the throw and hand position at release (release point). Experiment 1 confirmed the validity of regarding these variability measures as indices of automaticity, as they did not vary in spite of resource shortage induced by a dual‐task paradigm. In Experiment 2, in which stress led to a detriment in performance, the variability of joint coordination increased, whereas the release point became more fixed. These findings imply that throwing performance is impaired when the coordination is disrupted as a result of inflexible movement executed by conscious control.