title: Visual control when aiming at a far target.
abstract: Gaze behavior of elite basketball athletes was determined as they performed 10 accurate and 10 inaccurate free throws (FTs) to a regulation basket wearing an eye tracker that permitted normal accuracy. Experts (mean FT = 78%) differed significantly from near experts (mean FT = 56%) in having a longer fixation on the target combined with an earlier fixation offset during the shooting action. These results, which depart from current models of near aiming, are tentatively explained using a location-suppression hypothesis. During the early phases of the aiming action, a fixation of long duration is needed on a specific target location. As the aiming action is then performed, vision appears to be a liability and is suppressed.
authors.affiliation: Neuro-Motor Psychology Laboratory, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. vickers@acs.ucalgary.ca
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Vickers
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001490:Basketball / Q000523:psychology*; D004215:Distance Perception; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D009949:Orientation; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance