Sport Sciences and Health Research

Sport Sciences and Health Research

The effects of attentional strategies on dart throwing and gaze behavior indexes in novices: The moderating effect of anxiety

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Marjan Aghakhani masoud 1
Parisa Hejazi dinan 1
Maryam Khalaji 2
1 Department of Motor Behavior, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Sport Science and Health, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran
10.22059/sshr.2025.388189.1177
Abstract
Background: Researchers have always been interested in the focus of attention and the quiet eye. However, the effect of distance of attentional strategy in different anxiety conditions has remained unclear.
Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of attentional strategies on gaze behavior and the performance of dart throwing in novices under anxiety conditions.
Materials and Methods: The participants were 42 female, Alzahra University students, aged 18-35 years. Participants with high trait anxiety (score higher than 24) were excluded using the Sports Competition Anxiety Test through a state anxiety questionnaire. Participants were randomly divided into two groups of high and low-trait anxiety. They performed the dart-throwing task counterbalanced in four different attention strategies (distal external attention, proximal external attention, internal attention, and control). The participants in the high-anxiety group were told that if they performed each throw correctly, they would receive a cash prize, and the low-anxiety group performed the throwing without anxiety and any instruction. At the same time as dart throwing, gaze behavior data was recorded with an eye tracker device. After the anxiety manipulation, the individual's anxiety was measured with Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2.
Results: The results showed that the low-anxiety group performed better than the high-anxiety group (P=0.01). Also, external attention had a lower radial error in both high and low-anxiety groups. No significant difference was found in the average duration and number of fixations between different attentional strategies and groups. The comparison of the mean showed that in the low anxiety group, the fixation duration in the external attention strategy was longer, and in the high anxiety group, the fixation duration in the external attention and control strategies was longer than other strategies.
Conclusion: The present study supported the preplanning hypothesis, attentional control theory, and inhibition hypothesis, but was inconsistent with the restricted action hypothesis. These results showed the importance of the effect of anxiety on gaze behavior and performance in directing future research.
Keywords
State -Anxiety
Fixation
Visual Search
Eye-Movement. The focus of Attention

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Sport Sciences and Health Research
Volume 17, Issue 1
January 2025
Pages 121-136