Perceived Time Pressure Affects Fine Motor Performance via Subjective Distress in U. S. Adults

Subjective distress elicited by perceived or actual time limits can negatively affect performance of motor tasks. Why? Based on the integrative framework of stress, attention, and visuomotor performance, time pressure should affect visuomotor performance outcomes if it prompts perceiving demands to exceed resources and induces a state of threat. We tested this hypothesis with two online studies (Ns = 93 and 148; 2022) of adults in the United States who completed a route planning and tracing task. We manipulated time pressure using a within-subjects urgency messaging manipulation, cuing participants to hurry up on half the trials and marking the remaining trials not urgent. We measured subjective distress to index the state of threat and fine motor outcomes to index route planning and tracing performance. In both studies, urgency messaging reduced performance efficiency but not accuracy by increasing distress (subjective stress in Study 1; anxiety in Study 2). We conclude that perceived time pressure affects the efficiency of visuomotor performance in part because it induces a state of threat.