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

Perceived or actual time limits can negatively affect performance of motor tasks. Based on the integrative framework of stress, attention, and visuomotor performance (IFSAVP), time pressure should affect visuomotor performance outcomes if, in turn, it prompts perceiving demands to exceed resources, a state of threat, and distractibility. We put this framework to a partial test by examining whether subjective distress, a marker of a state of threat, is a mechanism by which time pressure affects performance in two online studies (Ns = 93 and 148; 2022) of adults in the United States. Participants completed a route planning and tracing task in which we manipulated time pressure using a within-subjects urgency messaging manipulation. We measured subjective distress and fine motor behavior indexing information processing efficiency, route efficiency, and accuracy. We partitioned the total of effects of urgency messaging (UM) on performance into indirect and direct pathways and meta-analyzed them. In indirect pathways, UM increased distress which hampered information processing efficiency and route efficiency, but not accuracy. In direct pathways, UM increased information processing efficiency and route efficiency and decreased accuracy. The total effect of UM was to increase information processing efficiency, but not route efficiency, and decrease accuracy. In sum, consistent with the IFSAVP, perceived time pressure affects visuomotor performance efficiency in part because it elicits subjective distress. Overall, these studies highlight the importance of modeling mechanisms and the utility of assessing two forms of performance efficiency and the effectiveness of fine motor behavior.