Highlights • Response-selection demands predicted QE duration over movement preparation and control. • Response-selection effects driven by the similarity and not the number of potential actions. • Inhibition hypothesis as necessary extension within a cognitive understanding of the QE. Abstract It is incontestable that high motor performance requires an optimal coupling between perception and action. In sports as well as in professional tasks, the Quiet Eye (QE) - defined as the final fixation before movement initiation - has been found to explain a considerable amount of variance in motor performance and expertise. In the current series of studies, the underlying mechanisms of this perception-action variable were further investigated by testing predictions of the inhibition hypothesis. According to the inhibition hypothesis, the functionality of the QE is to shield movement parametrization. By manipulating the demands during response selection (Experiment 1 and Experiment 2) and movement control (Experiment 2) in a far-aiming task, it was found that - in line with the predictions - QE duration increased with increasing inhibition demands. This effect was mainly driven by the similarity rather than the number of possible actions. Moreover, the relation between inhibition demands and QE-duration were sustained through both response selection and movement control, which is perfectly in line with the notion of a continuous perception-action cycle in motor behavior. In sum, these findings corroborate the inhibition function as an integral component within a cognitive understanding of the QE phenomenon.
© Copyright 2020 Psychology of Sport and Exercise. Elsevier. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.