The Effect Of Quiet Eye Training And Attentional Load On Performance And Learning Of A Golf Putt

Discussion

This study intended to examine if the possible benefits of training the Quiet Eye resulted to better outcomes in real competitive putting contests. The Quiet Eye (QE) is a period of prolonged gaze fixation on a target, and has been applied in many ventures requiring accurate timing including golfing. Longer quiet eye (QEDs) is articulated to be part of the tenets defining sport champions relative to non-champions (Marchant et al., 2018). Besides, QEDs is deemed as a distinguishing factor between less successful and successful trials during putting in golfing. The prospects of QE have been under studies, but the domains of cognitive mechanisms embedding QE have attracted insufficient scholarly attention and thus less understood. Scientists studying gaze behaviors have improved the understanding of how perceptual-cognitive logistics improves skilled performances. In the spectrum of sport science, scholars have demonstrated that in particular sports, excellent performers normally apply fewer fixations of prolonged durations relative to non-experts which consequently result in more effective extraction of sport-related knowledge and expertise.

Quiet eye was originally considered to functionally represent the time-span required to organize the parameters and neural networks which are responsible for controlling and orienting visual attention (Vine and Wilson, 2010). However, contemporary studies have proposed that QE may equally be conceived as a key period when sensory information is processed alongside mechanism which is fundamental in planning and controlling of important motor reactions. Quiet eye training centers on training golfers or any other gamers how to embrace eye movements of a professional sportsperson prototype and has been demonstrated to constitute positive influence on performance and learning. Initially, QE training researches reflects on the trainability of existing sport experts. This study has demonstrated that QE is trainable.

This research seeks to examine the impact of quiet eye training and attentional load on performance and learning of a golf putt. This study predicts based on previous studies that the exert golfer would demonstrate Longer QED than inexperienced golfers. This study finds from the golf putting positively correlates with previous findings which demonstrate longer QEDs in experienced golfers relative to novice golfers, particularly during aiming tasks. Additionally, correlation analysis across the putters demonstrates that longer QEDs corresponded to mild errors.

Study on rule and verbal learning offered proof that learning under particular circumstances of high intra-task interference led to better retention and contributed to lesser transferability. This study expected that the addition of a non-putter group would grant room for drawing logical comparisons with various expertise levels such as putters vs. non-putters and expert putters vs. novice putters could not be implemented in the field and would provide better indication of skill-related gaze strategies yielding more outstanding performances. Nibbeling, Oudejans, and Daanen (2012) emphasized that distinct gaze patterns between novice and expert golfers during putting and established that the individuals who have developed in-depth mastery of the game maintained a steady eye (quiet gaze) as a particular point or location within the ball contact. The prospect of QE was presented as “the time span of the final fixation or tracking gaze on a target within a threshold of three degree or less and has a minimum duration of 100 ms.” (Nieuwenhuys and Oudejans, 2011, pg. 78). The conception of QE begins before the final action of the sporting task with the offset being identified upon when the eye movement falls outside the ball threshold.

This research demonstrated that QED in skilled golfers is regulated by task movement. In particular, skilled participants of the game appeared to be sensitive to the noise levels and extended their QED during highly complex tasks. Lee (2015) maintained that it is the extended time incurred in processing such information which integrates more control of the golfing. Performance measures aligned with task complexity impact and game participants were generally less accurate in HN task relative to the LN task. The study found that golfers encountered difficulty in positioning the putt close to the target point during the time which they intended to shoot; leading to poor performance. The prospects of accuracy and timing are explainable through the consideration of gaze behavior during sporting.

Various mechanisms have proposed to define QE and its impact on performance. Published studies favor the programming hypothesis. Based on this programming hypothesis, the QE span is perceived to foster information synthesis and its duration is perceived to focus the time span incurred programming and fine-tuning movement response. In this hypothesis, prolonged QEDs are presumed to extend critical motor preparation time span, consequently influencing performance. Hunfalvay et al., (2017) noted a prolonged or longer QEDs alongside elevated or increased task complexity levels especially when manipulating the length of near versus far and the time required to finish a particular shot which is the constrained versus unconstrained time. The scholars’ findings favors the programming hypothesis based on the threshold that QEDs correlates to information processing requirements for sophisticated sporting tasks especially during prolonged information processing.

The analysis of the eye movements demonstrated expert golfers displayed longer QEDs relative to non-experts. This gives a clear indication that QEDs is potentially capable of discriminating between expert levels and performance. Whereas field task does not denote a causal linkage between performance and QED, it implies that some elements of aiming strategy used by a golfer group have potentials in improving performance. This study proposes that a constant gaze fixation helped the golfers in maintaining track of the putt’s position relative to the target. Besides, a study gaze fixation assisted game experts to explicitly predict when the golf ball would be on the as close to the target center as possible. Contrary, the golf non-experts may have found distraction from the unfamiliar moment-to-moment golf stick adjustments which led to larger errors and short QEDs. This observation correlates with the premise that skilled expertise and behavior integrates predictions while non-experts may have depended on sensory input while seeking to right their errors.

The QE timings failed to unravel major distinctions in QED offsets between various golf age group brackets. This observation may be as a result of seeking to control the golf stick all times. Besides, offset period could not differ between different groups in the field, consequently suggesting that late sensory data was instrumental in the field. This finding correlates with that of Lebeau et al., (2016) who founded significant distinction in QE offset while playing golf despite having variety levels of target location doubt. In Klostermann, Kredel and Hossner (2013) s’ experiment, information concerning the target erupted late and irrespective of this; participants embraced a timely QE offset, yielding to prolonged QEDs. Broadbent et al., (2015) equally reported facilitatory impacts on prolonged QEDs on performance at the times high risk demand forces whereby target uncertainty was integrated into the motor programme during OE.

Existing frameworks on motor control propose that sporting skills is dependent on the agglomeration of inferences of both the tools we interact with and the sensory feedback to correctly measure the effects of a motor reaction (Nieuwenhuys et al., 2008). The summation of two streams of information (sensory feedback and motor prediction) triggers perceptual-motor performance because incurring wrong judgments or largely depending on feedback may turn out to be expensive in terms of timeliness and accuracy. In conjunction with this model, the scholars studying QE mechanisms and their influence on performance have proposed that prolonged QEDs foster programming and that the accommodation of online control techniques seeks to maintain QE. This conclusion is correlates with QED findings suggesting that late data pickup is useful for the purposes of accuracy and continuous gaze control is vital in preventing performance breakdowns in proficient golfers.

Alder et al., (2016) examined the impacts of online control harnessing visual occlusion on event movement initiation in a golf putting event and concluded that performance on a putting game suffered without the presence of visual online control during QE. The researchers concluded that QE focuses on programming and the integration of online control and that this sort of online control is paramount in inducing optimum sporting performances. In addition, availing continued online information to infer predictions assists to boost general performance because the accuracy of internal representation such as the target can diminish with time.

Gonzalez et al., (2015) provided proof for the maximum incorporation of sensory feedback and predictions for state estimations and proposed that with enhanced certainty there exists a higher dependence on predictions concerning the target which are then oriented with the real feedback. This research finding proposes that target uncertainty is one of the considerations for QE adjustments whereby the cost of inducing corrections and time available are crucial factors. With regard to this study, it was the skilled golfers who demonstrated that QE onsets and prolonged QEDs in sports. An early QE onset can protract the information synthesis time especially when the activity at hand is highly complex. The novice golfers demonstrated that they were able to suppress time-consuming corrections or non-functional corrections early enough and implement ore volitional and predictive field control (Vine, Moore & Wilson, 2014).

The view that QE is linked with absence of eye movement and is normally denoted as “fixation” is a suggestion that oculomotor control and attention control are part of QE, in conjunction with a number of published studies investigating the role between visuospatial attention and extraction of saccades. Besides, the prevention of oculomotor reactions plays a fundamental function in retaining constant focus required in making predictions and planning for motor response. As a result, complex aiming sports’ skill related effects becomes products of superior capacity to supersede bottom-up attention through ventral and dorsal control systems (Oudejans, & Pijpers, 2009).

The longer QEDs of group experts and early QE onsets were implemented following the perceived tax complexity, but may equally be products of superior capacity to prevent the occurrence of responses intruding into the motor programme. Contrary, late QE onset in novice golfer and non-golfers in the event of HN compared to experts imply they required extra opportunity and time to position the golf stick and attain attentional focus in the field. As a result, the crosshair noise potentially caused forth significant performance errors.

Adolphe, Vickers and Laplante (2017) maintained that eye movements outside the QE were facilitated upon the execution of motor response. As a result, maintaining focus through a constant gaze paves a way for effective incorporation of sporting events, which may define and exemplify superiority exhibited by golfers. Earlier studies into the subject of anxiety and constant gaze propose that inhibitory control takes place during QE, with improvement in performance being realized after QE training under elevated anxiety. Anxiety is linked to discrepancies in attention control especially inhibition as a result of highly competitive cognitive resources. In addition, extra cognitive loads constitute high tendencies of increasing errors in ant-saccade tasks.

The advantageous impacts of this sort of quiet gaze on sporting performances is pervasive in various QE training analysis whereby training comprise of directing gaze to one point and maintaining this gaze for prolonged period. This kind of training is perceived to be initiate relentless focus on key cues far away from potential distractors. In the same way, a systematic research actualizing peripheral blurring of training videos has been harnessed to demonstrate improved performances in novice basketball enthusiasts and players. Gallicchio, Cooke, and Ring (2017) maintained a view that this manipulation excited the orientation of a gaze and attention to vital central cues. This resulted into overriding the conscious interaction with side detractors. Moreover, manipulating key target attention or inhibiting the mechanisms within QE may offer useful insights into the connections between attention and QE, and how these skills are obtained and applied in sporting.

In conjunction with initial claims that the period spent in the preparation of movement fosters the initiation of effective action for maximizing errors; Eysenck et al., (2017) propose that sport experts harness aiming time more splendidly when compared to no-experts. However, this study notes that the programming hypothesis and inhibition do not account for the benefits rendered by QED in performance are not inclusive; but inhibitory mechanisms are required to induce maximum sporting outcomes. This study’s findings support the increasing literature based on the efficiency and skill-related distinctions of longer QEDs in aiming sporting tasks. This study proposes that QE denotes to gaze strategy allowing actual and accurate programming and timely selection of a motor reaction by use of predictive control.

This study intended to contribute to literature in understanding how QE training operates towards enhancing optimized performances. The beginning point was to inquire from literature about the definition of the concept, and its role in motor action. Results demonstrated that a substantial improvement in performance in golf participants as a result of QE training. The players who have mastered QE skills displayed optimum performances, and high accuracy in putting relative to those players who had no mastered the art. This research maintains a view that QE training is a major driver of improved sporting performances. Further, QE training aims at ensuring a gaze is stable during putting golf strike which may further help towards a more accurate putter ball contact. The finding from this study provides a vivid impression that peripheral vision can be used to inspire a putting action.

This study reinforces previous studies in contending that QE training is vital in assisting golf players unchain self from the dreadful effects of anxiety. Quiet eye duration for all groups involved in this study did not change between pressure tests and retention. Earlier studies found that QE training assists in not only increasing psychological control but also improving stress appraisals. All golf groups in this study benefitted from QE training; which directly or indirectly promoted a constant gaze fixation upon the unfolding movement to ascertain improved putter-ball contact. These study findings therefore are concurrent with previous studies which demonstrated that late visual data is enough in maintaining accuracy across various golf putting. This study equally provides a clear demonstration quiet eye brings about high efficiency and accuracy in golf putting. Trained participants constituted higher effectiveness in putting strokes and more efficient quieting of cardiac and muscle processes before striking the putt, relative to traditional trained participants. This is despite the training instruction being relevant to gaze inclination. An explanation concerning the impact of QE training is entrenched in visual routines which integrate training regimes. By virtue of accruing the most responsive information previously in the routine, alterations to the eventual location become less fundamental.

In conclusion, this study sought to explore the effect of quiet eye training and attentional load on performance and learning of a golf putt. The research findings replicated initially done studies that QE training assists in elevating performances while at also safeguarding the performer from the impacts of anxiety. However, the prospects of location and quiet eye duration constituted no meaningful effect on kinematics of putter and performance.

This study offers spatial support for the effectiveness of quiet eye training but has not clearly demonstrated how quiet eye underpins the prospect of performance advantage as exhibited in previous studies. Despite of the scholarly support, quiet eye may not be reported as an operation of its duration or location. Apparently, there may be a crucial time span within the quiet eye which requires protection, while some of the duration may be critical to processing needs. Moreover, information quality offered by QE’s position may be less significant than when this information is given. A detailed and systematic conceptualization of the quiet eye may be necessary which earnestly account for the importance of the timing of information synthesis.

Currently, majority of studies examining the quiet eye suppose that pre-programming function is how quiet eye assist performance. This study finds a need for systematic studies covering quiet eye in a manner which has not been analyzed before. By giving visual information and knowledge during planning, studies will be able to experimentally control the information applied in quiet eye, in quest to comprehend how quiet eye brings about performance.

References

• Adolphe, R.M., Vickers, J.N. and Laplante, G., 2017. The effects of training visual attention on gaze behaviour and accuracy: A pilot study. International Journal of Sports Vision, 4(1), pp.28-33.
• Alder, D., Ford, P. R., Causer, J., & Williams, A. M. (2016). Training under high-anxiety conditions and transfer of learning in elite performers: the effects of high-and low-anxiety training on the anticipation judgments of elite performers. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. doi:10.1123/jsep.2015-0145
• Broadbent, D., Causer, J., Williams, A. M., & Ford, P. R. (2015). Perceptual-cognitive skill training and its transfer to expert performance in the field: Future research directions. European Journal of Sport Science. doi:10.1080/17461391.2014.957727
• Eysenck, M. W., Derakshan, N., Santos, R., & Calvo, M. G. (2017). Anxiety and cognitive performance: attentional control theory. Emotion, 7, 336-353.
• Gallicchio, G., Cooke, A. and Ring, C., 2017. Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis.
• Gonzalez, C. C., Causer, J., Miall, R. C., Grey, M. J., Humphreys, G., & Williams, A. M. (2015). Identifying the causal mechanisms of the quiet eye. European journal of sport science, 1-11. doi:10.1080/17461391.2015.1075595.
• Hunfalvay, M., Roberts, C.M., Ryan, W., Murray, N., Tabano, J. and Martin, C., 2017. An Exploration of Shifts in Visual Fixation Prior to the Execution of Baseball Batting: Evidence for Oculomotor Warm up, Attentional Processes or Pre-performance Routines?.
• Klostermann, A., Kredel, R., & Hossner, E.-J. (2013). The “Quiet Eye” and Motor Performance: Task Demands Matter! Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 39(5), 1270-1278.
• Lebeau, J.C., Liu, S., Sáenz-Moncaleano, C., Sanduvete-Chaves, S., Chacón-Moscoso, S., Becker, B.J. and Tenenbaum, G., 2016. Quiet eye and performance in sport: A meta-analysis. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 38(5), pp.441-457.
• Lee, D.H., 2015. The role of the quiet eye in golf putting.
• Nibbeling, N., Oudejans, R. R., & Daanen, H. A. (2012). Effects of anxiety, a cognitive secondary task, and expertise on gaze behavior and performance in a far aiming task. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13(4), 427-435.
• Nieuwenhuys, A., & Oudejans, R. R. D. (2011). Training with anxiety: short-and long-term effects on police officers’ shooting behavior under pressure. Cognitive Processing, 12(3), 70-288.
• Nieuwenhuys, A., Pijpers, J. R., Oudejans, R. R. D., & Bakker, F. C. (2008). The influence of anxiety on visual attention in climbing. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 30, 171-185.
• Marchant, D.C., Carnegie, E., Wood, G. and Ellison, P., 2018. Influence of visual illusion and attentional focusing instruction in motor performance. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, pp.1-11.
• Oudejans, R. R. D., & Pijpers, J. R. (2009). Training with anxiety has a positive effect on expertperceptual–motor performance under pressure. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62(8), 1631–1647.
• Vine, S. J., & Wilson, M. (2010). Quiet eye training: effects on learning and performance under pressure. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 22, 361-376.
• Vine, S. J., Moore, L. J., & Wilson, M. R. (2014). Quiet eye training: The acquisition, refinement and resilient performance of targeting skills. European Journal of Sport Science(ahead-of-print), 1-8.