Quiet eye facilitates sensorimotor preprograming and online control of precision aiming in golf putting

Introduction An occlusion protocol was used to elucidate the respective roles of preprograming and online control during the quiet eye period of golf putting. Methods Twenty-one novice golfers completed golf putts to 6ft and 11ft targets under full vision or with vision occluded on initiation of the backswing. Results Radial error (RE) was higher, and quiet eye was longer, when putting to the 11ft vs. 6ft target, and in the occluded vs. full vision condition. Quiet eye duration, as well as preprograming, online and dwell durations, were longer in low-RE compared to high-RE trials. The preprograming component of quiet eye was significantly longer in the occluded vision condition, whereas, the online and dwell components were significantly longer in the full vision condition. Conclusion The findings demonstrate an increase in preprograming when vision is occluded. However, this was not sufficient to overcome the need for online visual control during the quiet eye period. These findings suggest the quiet eye period is composed of preprograming and online control elements, however, online visual control of action is critical to performance

Quiet Eye Facilitates Sensorimotor Preprograming and Online Control of Precision Aiming in Golf Putting

An occlusion protocol was used to elucidate the respective roles of preprograming and online control during the quiet eye period of golf putting. Twenty-one novice golfers completed golf putts to 6-ft and 11-ft targets under full vision or with vision occluded on initiation of the backswing. Radial error (RE) was higher, and quiet eye was longer, when putting to the 11-ft versus 6-ft target, and in the occluded versus full vision condition. Quiet eye durations, as well as preprograming, online and dwell durations, were longer in low-RE compared to high-RE trials. The preprograming component of quiet eye was significantly longer in the occluded vision condition, whereas the online and dwell components were significantly longer in the full vision condition. These findings demonstrate an increase in preprograming when vision is occluded. However, this was not sufficient to overcome the need for online visual control during the quiet eye period. These findings suggest the quiet eye period is composed of preprograming and online control elements; however, online visual control of action is critical to performance

Context Affects Quiet Eye Duration and Motor Performance Independent of Cognitive Effort

© 2021 Human Kinetics. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2020-0026Extensive literature has shown the effect of ‘Quiet Eye’ (QE) on motor performance. However, little attention has been paid to the context in which tasks are executed(independent of anxiety) and the mechanisms that underpin the phenomenon. Here, we aimed to investigate the effects of context (independent of anxiety) on QE and performance while examining if the mechanisms underpinning QE are rooted in cognitive effort. In this study, 21novice participants completed golf putts while pupil dilation, QE duration, and putting accuracy were measured. Results showed putting to win was more accurate compared to the control (no context) condition and QE duration was longer when putting to win or tie a hole compared to control. There was no effect of context on pupil dilation. Results suggest that,while the task was challenging, performance scenarios can enhance representativeness of practice without adding additional load to cognitive resources, even for novice performers.Peer reviewe

Learning different task spaces: how explored density aligns the Quiet Eye.

In the current study, predictions of a theoretical account to the explanation of the Quiet Eye (QE) were investigated. To this end, by manipulating the learning environment, participants (n = 52) learned an underhand throwing task which required to explore task-solution spaces of low vs. high density over a 4-week training phase (640 training trials). Although throwing performance was improved, surprisingly, in posttest and retention test shorter QE durations were found. It is speculated that on a short-time learning scale this effect might be explained by more efficient information processing. Moreover, a trend was observed which suggests that-in line with the inhibition hypothesis-when exploring high-density task-solution spaces longer QE durations are required. However, the rather small effect sizes necessitate further research, which will allow to manipulate the response-effect mappings more directly as, for example, in virtual environments

Assessing ocular activity during performance of motor skills using electrooculography

© 2018 The Authors. Psychophysiology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Psychophysiological Research Eye-tracking research has revealed that, compared to novices, experts make longer ocular fixations on the target of an action when performing motor skills; that is, they have a longer quiet eye. Remarkably, the reason why a longer quiet eye aids movement has yet to be established. There is a need for interdisciplinary research and new measures to accelerate progress on the mechanistic understanding of the phenomenon. With the aim to provide researchers with new tools, we assessed the utility of electrooculography (EOG) to examine ocular activity while 10 experts and 10 novices putted golf balls. We measured quiet eye durations, distinguishing its pre- and postmovement initiation components, and developed a novel time-varying index of ocular activity, eye quietness, computed as the variability of the EOG in short time intervals: lower values correspond with greater quietness. Finally, we measured movement durations using a combination of infrared and sound sensors. Experts had longer postmovement initiation quiet eye compared to novices; however, total and premovement quiet eye durations did not differ between groups. Eye quietness was inversely correlated with quiet eye duration, and was greatest immediately after movement initiation. Importantly, movement duration correlated positively with postmovement initiation quiet eye and negatively with eye quietness shortly after movement initiation. This study demonstrates the utility of assessing ocular activity during performance of motor skills using EOG. Additionally, these findings provide evidence that expert–novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics (e.g., movement duration) of how experts and novices execute motor skills

A critical analysis of the functional parameters of the quiet eye using immersive virtual reality

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Psychological Association via the DOI in this recordDirecting ocular fixations towards a target assists the planning and control of visually-guided actions. In far aiming tasks, the quiet eye, an instance of pre-movement gaze anchoring, has been extensively studied as a key performance variable. However, theories of quiet eye are yet to establish the exact functional role of the location and duration of the fixation. The present work used immersive virtual reality to manipulate key parameters of the quiet eye – location (experiment 1) and duration (experiment 2) – to test competing theoretical predictions about their importance. Across two pre-registered experiments, novice participants (n=127) completed a series of golf putts while their eye movements, putting accuracy, and putting kinematics were recorded. In experiment 1, participants’ pre-movement fixation was cued to locations on the ball, near the ball, and far from the ball. In experiment 2, long and short quiet eye durations were induced using auditory tones as cues to movement phases. Linear mixed effects models indicated that manipulations of location and duration had little effect on performance or movement kinematics. The findings suggest that, for novices, the spatial and temporal parameters of the final fixation may not be critical for movement pre-programming and may instead reflect attentional control or movement inhibition functions.Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE

Motor skill control and learning in aiming sports: a psychophysiological account of the neural efficiency and quiet eye phenomena

This thesis aimed to increase our understanding of the psychophysiological correlates of superior motor performance in target sports by providing an integrated account of the models of neural efficiency (Hatfield & Hillman, 2001) and quiet eye (Vickers, 2007). To this end, I conducted a series of four studies adopting a multimeasure approach to record brain activity- using electroencephalography (EEG)- eye movements- using electrooculography (EOG)- and movement kinematics- using motion sensors- in a golf putting task. The findings of these studies led me to propose an integrated neural efficiency-quiet eye model arguing that superior motor performance is achieved through refinement of cortical activity - reflected in regional gating of alpha oscillations- whereby movement-related information processing is promoted and at the same time insulated from other psychomotor processes that are unrelated with,. or detrimental to, fine motor control. The findings of my studies indicate that visual perception is inhibited.during the final stages of preparation for action, and suggest that the quiet eye phenomenon reflects a general psychomotor quiescence that facilitates clean and smooth movements. This thesis demonstrates the utility of psychophysiology in human movement science and builds some methodological and conceptual foundations for interdisciplinary research on the correlates of superior motor performance

The Effects of Attentional Load and Anxiety on Aiming Task Performance in Sport

The mechanisms underpinning perceptual-cognitive skills during performance in aiming tasks were examined in the current thesis. Firstly, due to a lack of research within the area, Chapter two investigated expertise differences and the effect of task complexity on visual search behaviours, movement kinematics during golf short game shots. Near experts were found to exhibit a significantly longer total quiet eye duration (QED) than the expert group during the putting task; a difference underpinned by having a QE-pre duration of more than double that of the experts. Task complexity had no significant effect on total QED but during a perceived harder task, QE-pre was again shown to be a distinguishing factor. Using the results of Chapter 2, Chapter 3 aimed to investigate the effects of increased attentional workload on the perceptual-cognitive skills and performance of expert and novice basketballers. Specifically, the aim of the chapter was to investigate whether increased attentional load through the use of a dual-task paradigm, exhibited the same negative effects as an increase in anxiety. QED was found to be lower during high attention conditions than low attention conditions, suggesting that processing efficiency was effected by the increased cognitive stress. Therefore, using the results of the two previous chapters, Chapter 4 aimed to investigate whether QE training under high attentional load could protect individuals somewhat from the negative effects of increased anxiety when performing under pressure in competition. It was found that both QE training groups increased their QED from pre-test to retention, however during a high attention post-test, only the QE high attention trained group maintained their QED’s when compared to QE low attention and technical trained groups. The findings have major implications for both theory and practice, whilst extending the research in the area of perceptual-cognitive skills