The size and shape of the attentional “spotlight” varies with differences in sports expertise.

Abstract

Focused attention enhances processing of some aspects of the world at the expense of unattended items. Although focused attention has been studied for decades, few studies have measured individual and group differences in how people distribute attention. In three studies, we explored differences in the breadth and distribution of attention as a function of athletic expertise. Study 1 found 25% greater attention breadth in expert athletes than in novices. Study 2 found that the distribution of focused attention for experts varied as a function of the type of athletic expertise: Experts in sports that demand greater horizontal distribution of attention (e.g., soccer) showed greater horizontal breadth of attention than did those whose sports demand more vertical attention (e.g., volleyball), and vice versa. Study 3 used a slightly modified design to replicate the results of Studies 1 and 2. Overall, the findings reveal a systematic association between the measured "shape" of focused attention in a laboratory task and expertise in a real-world skill.

Evaluating erroneous offside calls in soccer

“…Only 11% of calls (33/302) were erroneous when the visual angle was less than 40°, but 30% (16/53) were erroneous for visual angles over 40°. These results are consistent with laboratory evidence for diminished performance with increasing visual angle and with measured limits of visual attentional spread capacities above 40° of visual angle [1]. They are inconsistent, however, with the lack of a relationship between visual angle and error rates in the only other study to examine offside calls as a function of visual angle [8].…”

“…The perception of spatially disparate but simultaneous events might exceed the limits of their ability to spread attention; in laboratory tasks, the ability to make accurate judgments about spatially disparate objects diminishes as the visual angle between those objects increases [1]. …”

Mirror Visual Feedback Training Improves Intermanual Transfer in a Sport-Specific Task: A Comparison between Different Skill Levels

“…It has been repeatedly claimed that the impact of augmented feedback methods depends on task complexity and skill level [27, 28], but MVF studies did not consider whether skill level or task complexity might influence the beneficial performance gains through MVF (i.e., whether performance gains differ in terms of experienced versus unexperienced or high versus low level of expertise in a complex motor skill). In sport science and other fields of expertise research, it is well established that skill level modulates motor execution [29–31], neural activity of the action observation network [32–34], action anticipation [35], focus of attention [36], and gaze behavior [37]. Moreover, experts MNS activation is differently with higher involvement of the MNS when observed movements are familiar compared to nonfamiliar (i.e., are part of their existing motor repertoire) [38, 39].…”

The influence of motivational and mood states on visual attention: A quantification of systematic differences and casual changes in subjects' focus of attention

“…Attentional performance was analysed for each stimulus separation independently. In accordance with the procedure of Hüttermann, Memmert, and Simons (2014), the maximum attentional focus was determined by analysing the largest stimulus separation for each meridian at which subjects reliably identified the number of light grey triangles in both stimuli in at least 75% of the trials (cf. Vida & Maurer, 2012).…”

“…Rowe et al, 2007). All other aspects of the design including the attention-window paradigm (see also Hüttermann et al, 2013Hüttermann et al, , 2014 were identical to those of Study 1.…”