Skill Level and Audience Effects on Performance of a Karate Drill

Abstract

Skilled (12 male, 4 female) and unskilled (13 male, 4 female) American karate students kicked a target as many times as possible for four 15-s trials. They performed this multiple standing roundhouse kick drill both in the presence of an evaluative audience of karate experts and without the audience present. The presence of an audience had no effect on accurate kicks or errors for skilled subjects but did reduce the frequency of accurate kicks for unskilled performers. Several measures of socially influenced motivation failed to discriminate performers who would be more or less sensitive to the audience. Results are interpreted as consistent with social facilitation predictions and indicated that unskilled subjects sacrificed desired performance in order to avoid an increase in errors.