Visual Attentional Orienting in Developing Hockey Players

Covert visual orienting was measured in hockey players at two ages (12 and 15 years) and two skill levels (low and high), and in college students with no hockey training. Two types of cues were tested at five cue-target intervals (100-850 ms): digits that informed of likely target locations, and abrupt luminance changes that occurred randomly at possible target locations. High-skill 15-year-olds were best able to take advantage of the general alerting produced by both cues: their responses were fastest overall and changed least with cue-target interval. For the information cue, all participants showed increased benefits and costs as cue-target interval was increased, but high-skill players had generally smaller orienting effects than low-skill players. For the stimulus cue, all participants showed an inhibition to targets at cued locations, but the high-skill players showed greater change in the response time function over cue-target interval. These results support an association between hockey skill and several important aspects of visual attention: sustained alertness, efficient voluntary orienting, and efficient processing of abrupt stimulus events.