When the going gets tough, what happens to quiet eye? The role of time pressure and performance pressure during basketball free throws

High-Pressure Game Conditions Affect Quiet Eye Depending on the Player’s Expertise: Evidence from the Basketball Three-Point Shot

“…We used convenience sampling for the current study. Indeed, we contacted a local basketball team that had already collaborated with us in our previous work [ 60 ]. We asked coaches about athletes’ reachability, and we successfully recruited 21 male basketball players.…”

“…To note, all the players were the same who participated in the data collection of our previous work already mentioned (cf. [ 60 ]), except for the participant “P20”. However, it is essential to underline that the data collection reported in the present work and the task requested of the athletes were different from those of Giancamilli and colleagues [ 60 ].…”

“…While time and performance pressure are factors that can characterize the shots that occur during the last quarter of a closed-score game, as far as we know, only one previous QE study evaluated the effect of the interaction between time and performance pressure on QE characteristics on set shots (in detail, on the free throws, cf. [ 60 ]). The findings showed that the interaction effect of time and performance pressure led players to experience a “threatening state,” with impairment on attentional control, as indicated by the reduction of QED and the delay of QE onset.…”

“…Accordingly, building on QE literature which assessed the effect of high-pressure conditions (e.g., [ 19 , 41 , 54 , 64 ]), and those that suggested a change in QE characteristics when task demands are similar to actual game situations [ 29 , 52 , 61 ] we explored the effect of time and performance pressure on QE characteristics (cf. [ 60 ]) during three-point shots performed using a high-shooting style technique.…”

“…We assumed that time and performance pressure would lead players to experience a threatening state (i.e., the task demands exceed the ability to cope with them, cf. [ 21 ]), impairing QE characteristics and shot accuracy [ 41 , 54 , 60 ]. Given the literature on the gaze behavior of high-style shooters (e.g., [ 48 ]), we expected that the impairment on QE characteristics could especially affect QE late components (i.e., QE offset and QE online duration, cf.…”