Unwanted effects in aiming actions: The relationship between gaze behavior and performance in a golf putting task

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Abstract

Objectives

Instructions to avoid an action may increase the tendency to engage in the action (ironic effects) or cause an undesirable increase in the opposing action (overcompensation). The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between gaze behavior and performance in a golf putting task when these kinds of unwanted effects occur.

Methods

Twenty-seven participants performed an indoor golf putting task with instructions to land the ball on the hole (neutral instructions), land the ball on the hole but avoid putting too short and land the ball on the hole but avoid putting too long. Order of instruction was randomized and both gaze behavior and putting performance were assessed.

Results

When participants gazed for longer at a specific area (in front, behind or at the hole) the ball was more likely to land in that area. Subsequent analyses confirmed a tight relationship between gaze behavior and putting performance when overcompensation occurred. For ironic effects such a tight relationship was only found when participants were instructed to avoid putting too short, but not when participants were instructed to avoid putting too long.

Conclusions

Overall the results make clear that changes in (visual) attention play a key role in unwanted effects. Consequences of the results for Wegner's [(1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101, 34–52] theory of ironic processes are discussed.

Section snippets

Participants

Twenty-seven undergraduate students (14 women, 13 men) with no golf experience served as participants. Their mean age was 21.9 years (SD = .43). Informed consent was obtained and the rights of participants were protected in the study. The protocol of the experiment was approved by the Ethics Committee of the research institute.

Experimental set-up

Participants performed putts with a standard golf ball and putter on a carpeted indoor putting green (Greenfield, Al Kampen/The Netherlands) that was 1.20 m wide and

Correlations between fixation duration and end position

In line with our expectations, the correlation coefficient between the duration of fixations in front of the hole and the distance of the ball to the hole was negative, r = −.13, p < .05, while the correlation coefficient of the duration of fixations behind the hole and the distance of the ball to the hole was positive, r = .34, p < .01. To provide visual support for these correlations we computed the average duration with which participants fixated any of the three locations (in front of hole,

Discussion

The main purpose of this study was to gain more insight into the relationship between gaze behavior and putting performance when unwanted effects, either overcompensation or ironic effects, occur. By having participants execute a golf putting task with negative instructions and mental load, both overcompensation and ironic effects were induced. Not all participants were equally susceptible to unwanted effects, with a number of participants per condition showing good performance, several showing

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