Quiet Eye and Choking
DOI: 10.1249/mss.0b013e31829406c7
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Summary
This study investigates the relationship between the "quiet eye" (QE)—the final fixation on a target before movement initiation—and "choking," defined as performance failure under pressure. While previous research established that anxiety shortens QE durations, it typically averaged results across multiple trials, potentially obscuring the specific mechanisms of failure. This research aimed to examine QE changes at the precise point of performance failure and determine whether anxiety disrupts the pre-programming phase of movement or the online control phase during execution. Fifty expert golfers participated in a pressurized "shootout" task, putting from five feet until they missed. Gaze was recorded using mobile eye-tracking technology. The researchers analyzed the first, penultimate (last successful), and final (missed) putts, dividing the QE into three components: QE-pre (pre-programming, before backswing), QE-online (online control, during the stroke), and QE-dwell (post-contact fixation). Anxiety levels were measured using the Mental Readiness Form 3 to confirm the effectiveness of the pressure manipulation, which included cash incentives and ego-threatening feedback. The results confirmed that cognitive anxiety was significantly higher during the shootout than at baseline. Total QE duration was significantly shorter for the final missed putt compared to the first and penultimate successful putts. Crucially, the pre-programming component (QE-pre) remained stable across all three putts. However, the components associated with online control—QE-online and QE-dwell—were significantly shorter on the missed putt. Specifically, QE-online dropped from over 800 ms to 560 ms, and QE-dwell decreased from approximately 400 ms to less than 100 ms on the final attempt. Movement phase durations did not account for these gaze changes, indicating that the disruption was attentional rather than mechanical. These findings support Attentional Control Theory, suggesting that anxiety impairs goal-directed attention, leading to a breakdown in online visual control rather than motor pre-programming. The study concludes that choking under pressure is characterized by an inability to maintain visual fixation during the execution of the skill, disrupting the visual sensory information needed for accurate movement regulation. This implies that interventions for expert performers should focus on maintaining QE fixation throughout the entire movement phase to protect against anxiety-induced attentional shifts.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | OpenAlex-citations | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-19 |
| archive | success | unpaywall | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-19 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-20 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.
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