Purpose: The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of an internal vs. external 'focus of attention' on speech motor performance in healthy young adults.

Method: Twenty adults (aged 18-25) participated in a within-subjects experimental design. Nonwords, real words, and tongue twisters were produced by each participant in both attentional focus conditions (internal and external), with order of condition counterbalanced across participants. Speech motor coordinative consistency, timing, and behavioral accuracy were investigated.

Results: Accuracy of nonword, real word and tongue twister productions were relatively high across both external and internal focus conditions. A robust effect of condition on timing measures was noticed such that an internal focus (on articulatory movement) resulted in longer production durations and higher durational variability for most productions. In addition, an internal focus caused an increase in movement coordination variability for the production of real words.

Conclusion: Our findings offer some preliminary support to the theory that operating in an external 'focus of attention' condition, with a focus on acoustic goals, results in more efficient, automatic control of speech movements.

Learning outcomes: After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (1) describe the relevance of and challenges associated with the application of principles that govern nonspeech movements to speech performance; (2) summarize the implications of an external vs. internal focus of attention for speech motor performance; and (3) describe its role in speech motor skill learning in healthy and disordered groups.