Citation

Harris DJ, Wilson MR, Crowe EM, Vine SJ. Cogn. Process. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

School of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Exeter, St Luke's Campus, Exeter, EX1 2LU, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Springer Verlag)

DOI

10.1007/s10339-020-00954-y

PMID

32016685

Abstract

When tracking multiple moving targets among visually similar distractors, human observers are capable of distributing attention over several spatial locations. It is unclear, however, whether capacity limitations or perceptual-cognitive abilities are responsible for the development of expertise in multiple object tracking. Across two experiments, we examined the role of working memory and visual attention in tracking expertise. In Experiment 1, individuals who regularly engaged in object tracking sports (soccer and rugby) displayed improved tracking performance, relative to non-tracking sports (swimming, rowing, running) (p = 0.02, η_p² = 0.163), but no differences in gaze strategy (ps > 0.31). In Experiment 2, participants trained on an adaptive object tracking task showed improved tracking performance (p = 0.005, d = 0.817), but no changes in gaze strategy (ps > 0.07). They did, however, show significant improvement in a working memory transfer task (p < 0.001, d = 0.970). These findings indicate that the development of tracking expertise is more closely linked to processing capacity limits than perceptual-cognitive strategies.

Language: en

Keywords

Eye tracking; Gaze; MOT; Perceptual–cognitive expertise; Sport