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Choose your words wisely: Optimizing impacts on standardized performance testing.

Lee-Kuen Chua1, Gabriele Wulf2, Rebecca Lewthwaite3

  • 1Neurorestoration Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Gait & Posture
|May 23, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Optimizing motor learning conditions, including enhanced expectancies, autonomy support, and external focus, significantly improved balance control in healthy adults. This suggests current assessments may underestimate true balance capabilities under standard testing.

Keywords:
Autonomy supportBESS testBalanceEnhanced expectanciesExternal focus of attentionOPTIMAL theory

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Area of Science:

  • Motor learning and control
  • Applied kinesiology
  • Human performance optimization

Background:

  • The OPTIMAL theory highlights motivational and attentional factors influencing motor learning and performance.
  • Standardized assessments may not capture maximal capabilities due to a lack of optimized conditions.
  • This study investigated the impact of optimized conditions on balance control assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the influence of optimized conditions (enhanced expectancies, autonomy support, external focus) on balance control.
  • To test the hypothesis that optimized conditions reduce balance errors and postural sway.
  • To compare performance on a balance assessment under optimized versus neutral conditions.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) and center-of-pressure (COP) velocity for balance assessment.
  • Participants performed balance tasks under both an optimized condition and a neutral control condition.
  • Stance order was self-determined in the optimized condition and yoked in the control condition.

Main Results:

  • Fewer balance errors were observed in the optimized condition compared to the control condition (p < .001).
  • Lower center-of-pressure (COP) velocity, indicating reduced postural sway, was found under optimized conditions (p = .004).
  • BESS scores showed a significant positive correlation with COP velocity (r = .593, p < .001).

Conclusions:

  • Implementing optimized conditions provides a more accurate assessment of balance capabilities.
  • Practitioner's role in test administration can significantly influence motor assessment outcomes.
  • These findings have implications for clinical and laboratory assessments of physical capacity.