Gaze Control and Motor Performance in Motor Expertise Studies: Focused Review of Field Application Research on Perceptual Skill Training

Abstract

This research reviews studies on sports performance and visual exploration strategies in the field of sports proficiency and comprehension. Accepting visual information is conducted through visual search, now referred to as visual exploration. Visual exploration refers to the process of paying attention to appropriate key clues that contain the necessary information to prepare and execute actions in a given circumstance or to make pertinent decisions. The visual exploration study uses an eye-tracking system to measure gaze fixation time and position, and to discern the disparity in the process of obtaining information between experienced and amateurs depending on the various sports fields and presents meaningful results in revealing the characteristics of the former: experienced individuals. The Vision-in-Action system presents a methodology that can solve the limitations of the visual exploration paradigm. That is, the movement pattern of the gaze is recorded at the same time as performing the physical technical movement performed in the actual sporting event. This methodology is consistent with a theoretical flow that emphasizes the perceptual-action coupling process. Research on visual exploration and exercise performance has been conducted in various sporting events such as aiming, conceptual, and tactical tasks. Specifically, in aiming tasks, QED is a crucial facet linked to performance accuracy. Based on these exploration studies, perceptual technology training is applied. Perception technology training is applied as a method of QED and gaze control training, and it is reported that it has a distinctively positive effect on improving performance.