Exploring the quiet eye in archery using field- and laboratory-based tasks

Claudia C. Gonzalez, Joseph Causer, Michael Grey, Glyn Humphreys, R. Chris Miall, A. Mark Williams

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)
168 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The ‘quiet eye’ (QE)—a period of extended gaze fixation on a target—has been reported in many tasks that require accurate aiming. Longer quiet eye durations (QED) are reported in experts compared to non- experts and on successful versus less successful trials. The QE has largely been studied in the field, and the cognitive mechanisms underlying QE are not fully understood. We investigated the QEDs of ten expert and ten novice archers in the field and in the laboratory using a computer-based archery task. The computer task consisted of shooting archery targets using a joystick. Random ‘noise’ (visual motion perturbation) was introduced at high and low levels to allow for the controlled examination of the effects of task complexity and processing demands. In this task, we also tested an additional group of ten non- archers. In both field and laboratory tasks, eye movements were measured using electro-oculography. The expert archers exhibited longer QED compared to the novice archers in the field task. In the computer task, the archers again exhibited longer QEDs and were more accurate compared to non-archers. Furthermore, expert archers showed earlier QE onsets and longer QEDs during high noise conditions compared to the novices and non-archers, as well as in the high noise compared to the low noise condition. Our findings show skill-based effects on QED in field conditions and in a novel computer-based archery task, in which online (visual) perturbations modulated experts’ QEDs. These longer QEDs in experts may be used for more efficient programming in which accurate predictions are facilitated by attention control.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2843–2855
JournalExperimental Brain Research
Volume235
Issue number9
Early online date28 Jun 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2017

Keywords

  • gaze
  • experts
  • aiming
  • programming
  • attention

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