Individual differences in task-related activation and performance

Multiple measures of visual attention predict novice motor skill performance when attention is focused externally

“…Evidence suggests that the brain systems involved in tonic alerting are linked with those involved in mediating arousal (see Aston-Jones, Chiang, & Alexinsky, 1991) and that the relationship between physiological arousal and skill performance follows the classic inverted Ushaped function (Janelle, 2002;Yerkes & Dodson, 1908), which suggests that alerting should play a key role in athletic skill performance. However, it remains unclear whether this arousal-performance relationship extends to phasic visual alerting, and evidence for the specific inverted U relationship is mixed (Arent & Landers, 2003;Paller & Shapiro, 1983;VaezMousavi, Barry, & Clarke, 2009), potentially because the two forms of alerting may be confounded in some studies. While both forms of alerting may be important for motor skill performance, phasic alerting is of particular interest because it would appear to be the system most related to the rapid onset of stimuli in many athletic motor skills.…”

Feedback About More Accurate Versus Less Accurate Trials

“…We also wanted to examine whether activation (or arousal variations relative to a baseline level; Barry, Clarke, McCarthy, Selikowitz, & Rushby, 2005; VaezMousavi, Barry, & Clarke, 2009;VaezMousavi, Barry, Rushby, & Clarke, 2007a, 2007bVaezMousavi, HashemiMasoumi, & Jalali, 2008) would predict performance.…”

Bursts of transcranial electrical stimulation increase arousal in a continuous performance test

“…It is known that RTs are a low sensitivity measure, usually affected by many factors, such as fatigue and general activation of the arousal system (Davranche et al, 2006;van den Berg, 2006;Welford, 1980), but this inconsistency between physiological and behavioural responses remains an unexpected result, although it has already been reported in other studies. VaezMousavi et al, (2009) found that the physiological effect (measured through skin conductance response) did not always predict the behavioural effect (measured through RTs), showing also a large inter-individual variability for this relation. The authors reported that a high level of arousal increased the skin conductance response but it was not always related to a speeded behavioural performance.…”

“…We evaluated the response speed as a measure of the behavioural performance because a reduction in reaction time (RT) has been demonstrated in conditions of increased arousal, indicating a performance improvement (Bagherli et al, 2011;VaezMousavi et al, 2009;VaezMousavi et al, 2007a). In order to get an indication about the level of activation experienced by the participants, we recorded a subjective report before the experiment.…”