Mobilizing effort in complex motor tasks: Try-harder instructions in deceptive actions

Area of Science:

• Motor control and cognitive psychology
• Human performance and expertise

Background:

• External effort mobilization can influence task performance.
• Understanding effort's impact on complex motor skills is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if "try-harder" instructions enhance performance in complex motor tasks.
• To examine the role of athletic expertise in effort-based performance enhancement.
• To determine how effort mobilization affects deceptive actions in sports.

Main Methods:

• A reaction time paradigm was used with basketball passing movements (with/without head fakes).
• Participants received general instructions or "try-harder" prompts in 25% of trials.
• Novice and experienced basketball players were tested to assess expertise modulation.

Main Results:

• "Try-harder" instructions generally improved performance, speeding up response times and movement execution.
• Novices showed greater performance gains than experienced players, suggesting effort aids less-stabilized actions.
• Effort mobilization primarily reduced attentional lapses rather than general processing speed.

Conclusions:

• Effort mobilization enhances complex motor task performance, particularly when actions are not fully automated.
• Cognitive capacity limitations and coordinating conflicting movement components are key factors.
• Findings extend effort mobilization research to complex tasks and highlight its role in reducing attentional lapses.