Testing a Metacognitive Account of the Attentional Focus Effect in Music Performance

Focusing on external movement outcomes rather than the movements themselves has been reported to enhance motor performance, although the mechanisms for this attentional focus effect remain unclear. We examined whether the effectiveness of an attentional focus depends on the precision of metacognitive representations of the attended movement aspect. Amateur guitarists (N = 65, 52 valid metacognitive estimates) played a melody under internal, external and no-focus instructions. We assessed pitch and rhythm accuracy, and estimated participants’ ability to monitor two movement aspects corresponding to the attentional foci: internal/visual (finger positions) and external/tonal (pitch outcomes). Against our expectations, and challenging dominant accounts, focusing externally did not improve musical performance, nor was it moderated by metacognitive ability. Exploratory analyses revealed no interaction with expertise. Interestingly, participants demonstrated greater metacognitive precision for internal/visual information than external/tonal.