Focusing attention instructions, accuracy, and quiet eye in a self-paced task—an exploratory study

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory study was twofold: (a) to examine the effectiveness of internal (INT; focusing on the swinging motion of the arms) and external (EXT; focusing on the pendulum motion of the club head) focus of attention instructions on the performance of a golf-putting task under non-distracted and distracted (noisy) conditions, and (b) to examine the relationship between attentional focus instructions and gaze behaviour under these two conditions. A two-phase study was conducted. In Phase 1 participants performed the task under non-distracted conditions, while in Phase 2 they performed the task under both non-distracted and distracted conditions. Performance and gaze behaviour were measured in both non-distracted and distracted conditions in three groups: INT focus, EXT focus, and control (C). Two main findings emerged from the current study: (a) under non-distracted conditions, quiet eye (QE) durations were longer in the EXT participants than in the INT and C participants; however, accuracy and consistency of the golfing performance did not improve in the EXT participants; and (b) under distracted conditions, higher performance was observed in both the INT and EXT attentional focus participants than in the C participants. To further determine the relationship between EXT focusing instructions and QE, additional studies should be conducted.