Published papers

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019. It is generally considered that experts are typically more accurate and quicker in their responses and generally employ fewer fixations and longer duration. In motorsports, very few attempts have been made at perceptual-motor skills of racing drivers. We analyzed visual search activities of racing drivers in the simulated racing driving situation. A total of 15 subjects took part in the experiment and they all had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Two expert racecar drivers were competing in national and international races at that moment. Two intermediate drivers had experienced in race driving on the motor racing circuits. Others had no race experience. The results indicated differences between experts, intermediates and novices. Experts’ vehicle speed was higher than others. It can be seen that experts held the brake pedal position earlier and smaller time when they approached the corner, then stepped on the accelerator earlier and reached the maximum throttle position faster at the middle or apex of the corner. RMS of Steering wheel acceleration reveled that experts moved steering more variable while cornering. Proportion of eye movements types showed fixations of experts were more than intermediates and novices and, experts seldom blink and tended to set their line of sight towards and beyond the tangent point during the corner. SD of horizontal eye angle of experts were smaller than intermediates and novices. Findings which reveals expert racing driver used a systematic visual search strategy and control a car efficiently are discussed from not only expert performance approach but also empirical perspectives.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019. We focus on rally drivers’ eye movements and behaviors when they are driving around a corner on a gravel road in this research. Recent studies of visual strategy regarding visual control in driving have been conducted in a driving simulator and on a racing course or paved roads. However, this study was conducted in the real environment of gravel roads and with real vehicles. In this study, the difference between the accomplished and intermediate rally driver’s eye movements and fixation points were defined. The study’s purpose was to understand how expert drivers move their eyes while driving around a corner on a gravel road. Twelve subjects, who were rally drivers in Japan, participated in the experiment; the accomplished driver had won the World Rally Championship (WRC) and was the fast rally driver in Japan. Each subject’s eye movement was measured with mobile eye tracker (Tobii Pro Glasses 2, Tobii, Sweden) and operated at 50 Hz. The eye tracker recordings were analyzed using Frame-By-Frame analysis. This study suggests that the eye movements of accomplished drivers allow them to control the car safely and be conscious of oncoming corners. Furthermore, by looking and thinking ahead like accomplished drivers, the cognitive load associated with driving is likely to decrease; furthermore, it may serve to activate their memories of previous rallies.

© The Author(s) 2020. In many team sports, in which environmental change is constant, athletes selectively allocate attention between the approaching ball and other players, and constantly consistently making decisions regarding whom to pass the ball to. Few previous studies on decision-making in team sports such as soccer have included the ball reception phase. This study examined players’ visual search strategies during pass decisions. Using five-on-four soccer-specific film simulations from previously recorded real scenes, high-level players (HLPs) and middle-level players (MLPs) reacted to life-sized soccer scenes. We measured their visual search strategies in decision-making tasks involving ball reception and pass execution and collected their verbal reports. We employed a novel system wherein the ball is ejected toward participants according to the video clips in order to maintain perception–action coupling during the task. We found skill-based differences in decision-making accuracy, eye movement data, and verbal reports. HLPs demonstrated better decision-making than MLPs, and, in eye movement data, HLPs allocated more attention to nonmarked attackers ([M] = 14.1, [SD] = 4.8%, p <.001, η2 = 0.39), the teammate receiving the pass (M = 18.4, SD = 4.3%, p <.05, η2 = 0.15), and opponents (M = 14.6, SD = 6.3%, p <.05, η2 = 0.17) than did MLPs. Furthermore, according to verbal reports, HLPs tended to attend to information on opponent players. Thus, visual search strategies during ball reception suggest that the position and situation of teammates and opponents are the most important information sources for accurate and consistent pass decisions.