Abstract
The quiet eye is a perceptual skill associated with expertise and superior performance; however, little is known about the transfer of quiet eye across domains. We attempted to replicate previous skill-based differences in quiet eye and investigated whether transfer of motor and perceptual skills occurs between similar tasks. Throwing accuracy and quiet eye duration for skilled and less-skilled basketball players were examined in basketball free throw shooting and the transfer task of dart throwing. Skilled basketball players showed significantly higher throwing accuracy and longer quiet eye duration in the basketball free throw task compared to their less-skilled counterparts. Further, skilled basketball players showed positive transfer from basketball to dart throwing in accuracy but not in quiet eye duration. Our results raise interesting questions regarding the measurement of transfer between skills.
Highlights
The importance of good free throw abilities for professional basketball players is unquestioned
Studies of inter-group differences have shown that higher skilled athletes have a longer quiet eye duration and an earlier onset of their final fixation compared to less-skilled athletes (e.g., Vickers, 1996; Williams et al, 2002; Vickers and Williams, 2007; Causer et al, 2010), while studies of intra-group variability show longer and better timed quiet eye durations with successful compared to unsuccessful performances (e.g., Vickers, 1996; Vickers and Adolphe, 1997; Janelle et al, 2000; Harle and Vickers, 2001)
We hypothesized that skilled basketball players would outperform less-skilled players in the expertise-specific task of basketball free throw shooting, showing a higher throwing accuracy and longer quiet eye duration
Summary
The importance of good free throw abilities for professional basketball players is unquestioned. The quiet eye is defined as the final fixation (of at least 100 ms) prior to the onset of the final movement in a motor task (Vickers, 2007) and is associated with superior performance, explaining both inter- and intra-group variability (Mann et al, 2011) in a variety aiming tasks (for an overview, see Vickers, 2007). The quiet eye onset during the aiming movement has been shown to be important in several studies, the role of the timing is still under examination (for a review, see Vine et al, 2012). Based on the collective results of studies examining this phenomenon, having a long quiet eye duration has been emphasized for an optimal focus of visual attention (for a review, see Vine et al, 2012) and an optimal period of cognitive pre-programming (Moore et al, 2012). A longer quiet eye period may result in increased postural stability, which is important for aiming tasks (i.e., a general quiescence of the psychomotor system, Vine et al, 2011)
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