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Examining the roles of working memory and visual attention in multiple object tracking expertise.

ABSTRACT: When tracking multiple moving targets among visually similar distractors, human observers are capable of distributing attention over several spatial locations. It is unclear, however, whether capacity limitations or perceptual-cognitive abilities are responsible for the development of expertise in multiple object tracking. Across two experiments, we examined the role of working memory and visual attention in tracking expertise. In Experiment 1, individuals who regularly engaged in object tracking sports (soccer and rugby) displayed improved tracking performance, relative to non-tracking sports (swimming, rowing, running) (p?=?0.02, ?p2?=?0.163), but no differences in gaze strategy (ps?>?0.31). In Experiment 2, participants trained on an adaptive object tracking task showed improved tracking performance (p?=?0.005, d?=?0.817), but no changes in gaze strategy (ps?>?0.07). They did, however, show significant improvement in a working memory transfer task (p?

SUBMITTER: Harris DJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7203592 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Examining the roles of working memory and visual attention in multiple object tracking expertise.

Harris David J DJ Wilson Mark R MR Crowe Emily M EM Vine Samuel J SJ

Cognitive processing 20200203 2

When tracking multiple moving targets among visually similar distractors, human observers are capable of distributing attention over several spatial locations. It is unclear, however, whether capacity limitations or perceptual-cognitive abilities are responsible for the development of expertise in multiple object tracking. Across two experiments, we examined the role of working memory and visual attention in tracking expertise. In Experiment 1, individuals who regularly engaged in object trackin ...[more]

PMID: 32016685

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