The Effect of Attention on Quiet Eye Behavior and Accuracy of Execution on a Targeting Task

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of focusing attention on quiet eye behavior and accuracy of execution on dart throwing skills. For this purpose, 20 male students in dart beginner (age range 19-22 years old) were voluntarily selected. All participants performed external and internal attention instructions in a counterbalanced manner. Thus, Participants first made 10 attempts at baseline (without attentive instructions). Then performed a total of 20 training attempts as counterbalance in both external and internal attention strategies. In all trials, visual system information was recorded using an eye tracking device and the radial error formula was used to measure accuracy. Data were analyzed by repeated measure ANOVA (P=0.05). The results showed that the accuracy of throwing was significantly improved in external attention condition compared to baseline and internal conditions (P=0.001). The results also indicate that the quiet eye period was longer in the external focus condition than in the inner attention condition (P=0.001). According to the results of this study, it can be assumed that quiet eye duration is one of the essential mechanisms in execution accuracy of targeting skill in beginners, and that focusing attention in addition to execution accuracy is also effective on quiet eye duration.