Abstract
We compared coincidence-anticipation performance in normal vision and stroboscopic vision as a function of time-on-task. Participants estimated the arrival time of a real object that moved with constant acceleration (−0.7, 0, +0.7 m/s2) in a pseudo-randomised order across 4 blocks of 30 trials in both vision conditions, received in a counter-balanced order. Participants (n = 20) became more errorful (accuracy and variability) in the normal vision condition as a function of time-on-task, whereas performance was maintained in the stroboscopic vision condition. We interpret these data as showing that participants failed to maintain coincidence-anticipation performance in the normal vision condition due to monotony and attentional underload. In contrast, the stroboscopic vision condition placed a greater demand on visual-spatial memory for motion extrapolation, and thus participants did not experience the typical vigilance decrement in performance. While short-term adaptation effects from practicing in stroboscopic vision are promising, future work needs to consider for how long participants can maintain effortful processing, and whether there are negative carry-over effects from cognitive fatigue when transferring to normal vision.
Highlights
The human visual system typically receives an intermittent flow of incoming information due to blinks, saccades and periods of transient occlusion when an object-of-interest disappears from view behind another object or surface
Participants became less accurate in the normal vision condition across the 4 blocks, whereas they maintained a similar level of accuracy in the strobe vision condition
It has recently been reported that practice under stroboscopic vision conditions can facilitate the development of sport-specific skill[2,21], and that this could be explained in part by adaptation of processes such as motion coherence and attention in central vision[7] and visual-spatial memory[5]
Summary
The human visual system typically receives an intermittent flow of incoming information due to blinks, saccades and periods of transient occlusion when an object-of-interest disappears from view behind another object or surface (e.g., as the ball is obscured by the defensive players during a free kick in soccer). Anecdotal reports suggest that participants exhibit more focussed attention on an approaching object when practicing catching tasks in stroboscopic vision[8] This is consistent with related empirical work that has shown an overall increase in attention (i.e., “high-beams” effect) in order to maintain a persistent visual-spatial memory of relevant stimulus locations (i.e., object and distractors) when vision is intermittently occluded[9]. We hypothesised that the greater demand on visual-spatial memory for motion extrapolation in the stroboscopic vision condition would enable participants to sustain attention and offset the typical vigilance decrement
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