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 (QEDs) are reported in experts compared to non-experts and on successful versus less successful trials. The QE has been extensively studied in the field; however, the cognitive mechanisms underlying the QE are not yet 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 computer task, we also tested an additional group of ten non-archers as controls. In both field and computer 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. 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.
Highlights
Scientists examining the gaze behaviours employed by expert performers across several domains have improved our understanding of the perceptual–cognitive mechanisms that are characteristic of skilled performance
With the use of video-based mobile eye trackers, longer quiet eye durations (QEDs) have been reported to be characteristic of experts compared with non-experts, and on successful compared with less successful performance, in many aiming sports, including shooting (Causer et al 2010), darts (Rienhoff et al 2013), and billiards (Williams et al 2002)
Our analysis revealed that computer task scores were higher, F(1,27) = 111.08, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.81, and total response time (TRT) were longer, F(1,27) = 7.81, p = 0.01, ηp2 = 0.23, in the high noise’ (HN) compared to the low noise’ (LN) condition
Summary
Scientists examining the gaze behaviours employed by expert performers across several domains have improved our understanding of the perceptual–cognitive mechanisms that are characteristic of skilled performance (for reviews, see Mann et al 2007; Rienhoff et al 2016). In the field of sports science, for example, researchers have shown that, in certain sports, expert performers often employ fewer fixations of longer durations compared with non-experts, resulting in a more efficient extraction of task-relevant information (Mann et al 2007; Williams and Davids 1998; Williams et al 1994). With the use of video-based mobile eye trackers, longer quiet eye durations (QEDs) have been reported to be characteristic of experts compared with non-experts, and on successful compared with less successful performance, in many aiming sports, including shooting (Causer et al 2010), darts (Rienhoff et al 2013), and billiards (Williams et al 2002). The QE has been successfully used as a training tool (where to look and for how long) with improvements in performance linked to relative increases in QED (see Vine et al 2014) in different targeting sports (Causer et al 2011; Moore et al 2012; Vine and Wilson 2011) and, recently, both in the training of surgical skills (Causer et al 2014) and motor skills in clinical populations (Miles et al 2015)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
