ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the research that points to a role for effective gaze behavior in supporting expert-like planning and control of visually guided skills. The quiet eye (QE) is the final fixation to a target during the preparation phase of a goal-directed movement. The key processes underpinning the QE period – setting parameters for movement, processing appropriate environmental cues, synchronizing motor strategies are related to functions of attentional control. Longer QE durations provide a period to efficiently pass visually acquired goal position information to the motor control systems, which should therefore result in movement kinematics and patterns of muscle activation that are more effective for successful skill performance. The use of event-related potentials has been reported in various psychophysiological investigations that have examined attentional processes involved prior to task execution. Targeting tasks are self-paced and generally require a great deal of accuracy as an object is propelled towards a distal target.
