Attention and visual imagery: how hyperphantasia influences novice shooters’ performance across different attentional foci

Abstract

Studies suggest that an internal focus leads individuals to rely on kinaesthetic information, which is undesirable and hard to use for less-skilled individuals. On the other hand, visual imagery may facilitate the use of kinaesthetic information. In the present study, for the first time, we investigated if vividness of visual imagery modulates the effects of attentional focus on motor performance by comparing two groups of novice young shooters: (1) hyperphantasic individuals (i.e., individuals with visual imagery ability as vivid as real seeing; n = 21), and (2) mid-range visual imagers (i.e., individuals with normal vividness of visual imagery; n = 20). Shot accuracy, performance time, and aiming trace speed (stability of the hold) were measured to quantify young novices’ performance. Our results indicated that an internal focus resulted in less accurate shots in mid-range imagers compared with hyperphantasic individuals. Furthermore, within-group analyses revealed that while hyperphantasic participants maintained their levels of accuracy during different attentional focus conditions, mid-range visual imagers had less accurate shots during both internal and external relative to their performance under control condition. In addition, both groups demonstrated an increased Performance time during internal and external focus relative to the control condition. Finally, aiming trace speed increased during an external relative to an internal focus condition. In conclusion, the present study suggests that hyperphantasia may buffer the negative effects of suboptimal attentional focus strategies during the performance of accuracy tasks by allowing for the flexible use of different attentional cues.