title: Asymmetries in spatial perception are more prevalent under explicit than implicit attention.
abstract: Observers typically show systematic errors in spatial perception when asked to bisect a line. We examined whether misbisection relates to the extent by which the midpoint is scrutinized explicitly. Participants were required to position a soccer goalkeeper at the exact midpoint of the goal line, drawing explicit attention to the midpoint of the line. Subsequently, they carried out a penalty kick to score a goal, without eliciting explicit attention for the centre of the goal for choosing the side to which to kick the ball. We found that participants positioned the goalkeeper to the right of the centre, confirming the previously reported rightward bias for line bisections in extra-personal space. Although participants (erroneously) believed that the goalkeeper stood in the centre, they kicked the ball to the bigger side of the goal more often. These findings indicate that asymmetries in spatial perception are more evident with explicit than implicit attention.
authors.affiliation: German Sport University, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: b.noel@dshs-koeln.de.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Noël
authors.affiliation: Research Institute Move, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Institute of Human Performance, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van der Kamp
authors.affiliation: Paderborn University, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weigelt
authors.affiliation: German Sport University, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Memmert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012916:Soccer / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attentional asymmetries; Implicit perception; Line bisections; Off-centre effect; Penalty kicking