Abstract des Autors

The purpose of this study was to examine how internal versus external focus of attention influences quiet-eye duration during basketball free-throw shooting. Three basketball groups (experts, advanced, novices) had their focus of attention manipulated using verbal instructions to concentrate on the ball (external), concentrate on their hands (internal), or with no instruction at all (control). Fixation durations toward the target were measured and defined as the quiet eye. Results indicated an external focus of attention on the ball lead to a significant decrease in basketball free-throw shooting performance and significant reduction in quiet-eye duration. Better shooting performance was associated with longer quiet-eye duration across all skill levels. These results highlight several areas of further investigation regarding the influence of focus of attention and gaze behaviors in skilled perception.