Citation

Vickers JN. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 1996; 22(2): 342-354.

Affiliation

Neuro-Motor Psychology Laboratory, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. vickers@acs.ucalgary.ca

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, American Psychological Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8934848

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.

Language: en