title: On the interaction of attentional focus and gaze: the quiet eye inhibits focus-related performance decrements.
abstract: To date, despite a large body of evidence in favor of the advantage of an effect-related focus of attention compared with a movement-related focus of attention in motor control and learning, the role of vision in this context remains unclear. Therefore, in a golf-putting study, the relation between attentional focus and gaze behavior (in particular, quiet eye, or QE) was investigated. First, the advantage of an effect-related focus, as well as of a long QE duration, could be replicated. Furthermore, in the online-demanding task of golf putting, high performance was associated with later QE offsets. Most decisively, an interaction between attentional focus and gaze behavior was revealed in such a way that the efficiency of the QE selectively manifested under movement-related focus instructions. As these findings suggest neither additive effects nor a causal chain, an alternative hypothesis is introduced explaining positive QE effects by the inhibition of not-to-be parameterized movement variants.
authors.affiliation: Movement Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Klostermann
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kredel
authors.forename: Ernst Joachim
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Hossner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006055:Golf / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*