Kinesiology Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2784
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Item Understanding and Retraining the Causal Attributions for Exercise Intenders(2019) Singpurwalla, Darius; Iso-Ahola, Seppo E; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Given that ~50% of all exercise intenders will fall into the intention-behavior gap (i.e., a situation where people fail to act on their intentions), it is necessary to identify the constructs and/or theories that can explain the discord between intention and behavior (i.e., the intention-behavior gap). For this purpose, the present research was conducted through two studies that were designed to test the efficacy of causal attributions as a means to reduce the intention-behavior discord. The first study collected information from 952 individuals on their exercise behavior and their associated causal attributions over a six-week period. The findings from this study included: (1) those individuals who fell into the intention-behavior gap made self-serving attributions for their exercise failure; (2) Weiner’s model accurately predicted several of the affective and cognitive responses to exercise behavior for the sample of exercise intenders; and (3) causal attributions were not found to be effective moderators of the intention-behavior relationship. The second study was an experiment that tested whether an attribution retraining intervention could improve exercise behavior for a sample of sedentary, exercise intenders (n=200). Results of this study were mixed as the intervention appeared to have been able to modify one of the targeted attributional dimensions (control), but the effect was not strong enough to change the exercise behavior of the participants in the experimental group. It is suggested that attributions may not be able to reduce the gap because they represent conscious deliberations of the behavior, while sustained exercise is based on nonconscious processing of relevant information to make exercise an automatic behavior.Item THE INFLUENCE OF CONSCIOUS CONTROL OF MOVEMENT ON BRAIN PROCESSES AND THE QUALITY OF COGNITIVE-MOTOR PERFORMANCE(2015) Lo, Li-Chuan; Hatfield, Bradley D.; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The impact of mental stress on fine motor performance is typically maladaptive. The current research was conducted to investigate the manner by which state anxiety affects performance using a cognitive neuroscience perspective. The basic proposition tested, derived from the Reinvestment Theory and the Psychomotor Efficiency Hypothesis, is that stress introduces neuromotor noise to motor planning processes that translate as excess recruitment of motor units and degrade performance. Electroencephalography (EEG) was employed in Study 1 to assess regional cortical activation and cortico-cortical communication between non-motor associative and motor planning regions during the preparatory period of a dart-throwing task. The task was performed during stress (i.e., social evaluation, monetary incentives, and threat of electrical shock) and a relatively relaxed control condition through a within-subjects design. Regional activation was estimated from bilateral EEG recordings in the frontal, central, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions via spectral analysis to assess low-alpha and high-alpha band power to determine generalized arousal and task-relevant attentional focus, respectively. Cortico-cortical communication was estimated between all bilateral regions and the frontal motor planning area with particular emphasis on the left temporal (T3) to midline frontal (Fz) coherence. Elevated state anxiety was induced and associated with heightened T3-Fz EEG connectivity and synchrony of high-alpha band in the right occipital region. Based on these findings, Study 2 was conducted to determine the psychological processes accounting for the observed elevation in T3-Fz EEG coherence and the quality of muscle action during the throwing task. Specifically, participants employed an internal and an external attentional focus to perform the throwing task while their EEG and electromyography (EMG) were monitored. The use of internal focus, which is consistent with explicit monitoring of movement mechanics, was predicted to result in elevated T3-Fz EEG connectivity. This prediction was supported and, furthermore, the magnitude of connectivity was positively associated with motor unit activity assessed via EMG of four major muscle groups (i.e., flexor carpi ulnaris, extensor carpi radialis, biceps brachii, and triceps brachii). The evidence provided supports the theoretical notion that explicit monitoring promotes inefficient muscle activity, which mediates to impact performance negatively.