Higher-level archers distribute their attention better

The summary today

The support comes mostly from comparisons made with an instrument. Among sixty-five young Russian archers, those in the national squad make fewer errors on the red-and-black tables than their regional-level teammates (2.38 errors against 3.50) and finish sooner; in twenty-six Chinese archers the national squad spends more time at rest in the brain state linked to voluntary attention; and watching a film of the shot, seven Korean national team archers look at the target and the wind flags for longer than their university teammates, with a gaze that is less easily distracted while aiming. The picture is not clean, though. In 1986, across about a hundred and twenty archers from beginner to Olympic champion, none of the six attentional scales of a classic questionnaire was linked to the score, and in the same Russian study sporting grade and years of practice make no difference on any test. The largest samples, Chinese athletes from archery and shooting together, find the national squad 29 milliseconds quicker and far more consistent than the provincial squad, but with alerting, orienting and conflict control working the same way in both groups: quicker, not differently distributed. These are all comparisons made at a single moment, which cannot say whether attention is the cause of the level or the product of years of shooting, and the studies on archers do not all point the same way.

Also phrased as: "attention in expert archers"; "concentration and level"; "elite archers' focus"; "broad and narrow attention"; "strong archers concentrate better"

Evidence

• 1986
  Against Archers Published later

  American recurve archers, from beginner to Olympic champion, tested between 1982 and 1984: the six attentional scales of the Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style are not linked to the average of the year's official scores, with correlations between -0.16 (broad internal focus) and 0.17 (broad external focus) across about 119 archers with complete questionnaires. These are reported attentional styles, not attention tests.

  A Psychobiological Study of Archery Performance · Daniel M. Landers, Stephen H. Boutcher, Min Q. Wang

• 2012
  Context Archers Published later

  10 archers and 8 kyudo practitioners, male university students, with a Go/NoGo task and blink recording: competitive level within the club is linked neither to warning blinks (r = -0.22) nor to early blinks after the stimulus (r = -0.18 and -0.17), nor to late ones (0.15 and -0.20), nor to reaction time (0.33), all not significant. It measures readiness, not how attention is distributed.

  A study of eyeblinking and attention concentration in Kendo practitioners · Masayuki Hamaguchi, Hiroshi Asada, Kaoru Kitagawa

• 2015
  For Archers Published later

  70 Greek elite archers with the ACSI-28 questionnaire: reported concentration is 5.4 ± 0.71 in those competing for six years or more, 5.1 ± 0.80 between three and five years and 4.7 between one and two (F = 9.2). It is a self-assessment, and the comparison is by years of competition, not by level of results.

  Psychological skills of elite archery athletes · Evangelos Bebetsos

• 2017
  For Archers Published later

  65 young Russian archers, aged 16.3 on average, tested after a competition: on the last series of the red-and-black tables those in the national squad make 2.38 errors against 3.50 for their regional-level teammates (U = 341.5, p = 0.016) and take 4.26 against 4.79, a time the study reports without a unit (U = 364.5, p = 0.038). The national squad is the youth squad, 29 archers against 36. Regional journal.

  Psychological features of attention in archery · Ekaterina Yu. Korobeinikova, Sergey V. Leonov, Irina S. Polikanova

• 2017
  Against Archers Published later

  In the same 65 archers formal sporting grade goes with no difference on any attention measure: 11 archers held a grade from third to first, 13 were candidate masters, 39 masters of sport and 2 international-level masters. No difference by years of practice either, nor between recurve and compound.

  Psychological features of attention in archery · Ekaterina Yu. Korobeinikova, Sergey V. Leonov, Irina S. Polikanova

• 2017
  Context Archers Published later

  The tests were taken after the competition and without a group of non-archers: accuracy is high in everyone (0.89 on the Landolt rings, 0.85 on geometric figures, 0.70 on change blindness), and the fatigue of competition may weigh differently on those who have just shot well and those who have not.

  Psychological features of attention in archery · Ekaterina Yu. Korobeinikova, Sergey V. Leonov, Irina S. Polikanova

• 2019
  For Archers Published later

  7 archers from the Korean national team and 7 university archers with no national competition experience watch, with an eye tracker, a film of the shot recorded from the archer's point of view: while waiting to step onto the line the national archers make more fixations (6.37 ± 1.56 against 4.38 ± 0.67) and fewer saccades (8.00 ± 2.63 against 11.47 ± 2.02), looking more at the target and the wind flags; while aiming, with a beep or with coloured circles around the sight, they make fewer and longer fixations (2.47 against 3.25 with the circles, 2.54 against 3.04 with the beep). From the second phase to the sixth the number of fixations does not separate the groups. Seated in front of a screen, with no bow and no score, and with degrees of freedom (72 and 24) larger than fourteen archers allow.

  Visual Scanning Behavior and Attention Strategies for Shooting Among Expert Versus Collegiate Korean Archers · Youngsook Kim, Taiseok Chang, Inchon Park

• 2021
  For Other sport Published later

  62 athletes from the Chinese national squad, 37 shooters and 25 archers, against 49 from the Hebei provincial squad: reaction time on the attention network test 508.44 ms (standard deviation 39.75) against 537.28 (68.46), F(1,109) = 7.72, p = 0.006, with the same accuracy (0.97 against 0.98, p = 0.146). The advantage is similar in all six conditions and holds after allowing for age, about four years higher in the national squad. A mixed sample from two sports.

  Efficiency and Enhancement in Attention Networks of Elite Shooting and Archery Athletes · Quanyu Lu, Pengli Li, Qiong Wu, Xinghua Liu, Yanhong Wu

• 2021
  Against Other sport Published later

  In the same sample level does not change how the three attention networks work: group by cue type interaction F(2,218) = 0.12, p = 0.865, group by congruency F(1,109) = 1.13, p = 0.289. Alerting, orienting and conflict control behave the same way, and within the national squad archers and shooters cannot be told apart.

  Efficiency and Enhancement in Attention Networks of Elite Shooting and Archery Athletes · Quanyu Lu, Pengli Li, Qiong Wu, Xinghua Liu, Yanhong Wu

• 2021
  For Other sport Published later

  41 athletes from the Chinese national squad and 43 from the provincial squad, shooters and archers together: on the breath detection task the national athletes are 11.5 percentage points more accurate (95% CI 3.7 to 19.4, p = 0.004; d' higher by 1.16, p = 0.002), even after allowing for age, 24.5 against 19.1. The provincial athletes also sit well above chance (72.1 per cent against 83.6 for the national squad): the difference is one of degree.

  What Makes an Elite Shooter and Archer? The Critical Role of Interoceptive Attention · Pengli Li, Quanyu Lu, Qiong Wu, Xinghua Liu, Yanhong Wu

• 2021
  Against Other sport Published later

  In the same 84 athletes attention to an external visual stimulus does not separate the two levels: accuracy higher by 0.5 points, p = 0.797; d' higher by 0.19, p = 0.427.

  What Makes an Elite Shooter and Archer? The Critical Role of Interoceptive Attention · Pengli Li, Quanyu Lu, Qiong Wu, Xinghua Liu, Yanhong Wu

• 2022
  For Archers Published later

  13 archers from the Chinese national squad (8.7 points per arrow on average) against 13 from the provincial squad (6.8), resting EEG: microstate D, linked to the dorsal attention system, has higher frequency, duration and coverage in the elite group (frequency p = 5.7 × 10⁻¹², duration 99.4 against 92.9 ms, p = 9.4 × 10⁻⁴, coverage p = 1.5 × 10⁻¹¹), and it is the state towards which transitions from the others converge.

  Research on Top Archer's EEG Microstates and Source Analysis in Different States · Feng Gu, Anmin Gong, Yi Qu, Hui Xiao, Jin Wu, Wenya Nan, et al.

• 2022
  Context Archers Published later

  In the same 26 archers the elite group stays for shorter periods in the other three states (A 104.7 against 119.1 ms, B 91.2 against 112.2, C 94.8 against 104.7, all significant), and in the provincial group the state towards which transitions converge is the one for phonological processing, while the attentional one is the least attracting. It is measured at rest, not during shooting.

  Research on Top Archer's EEG Microstates and Source Analysis in Different States · Feng Gu, Anmin Gong, Yi Qu, Hui Xiao, Jin Wu, Wenya Nan, et al.

• 2022
  Context Other sport Published later

  A dataset description: 16 elite shooting and archery athletes, 6 of them archers, 15 pentathletes and 43 students, with EEG and eye-tracking. The alpha/beta ratio of the shooting athletes is 3.35 with eyes closed against 2.74 and 3.00 in the two control groups, and 2.52 on the shooting target against 2.33 and 2.44. No statistical test.

  A simultaneous electroencephalography and eye-tracking dataset in elite athletes during alertness and concentration tasks · Xinzhen Pei, Guiying Xu, Yunhui Zhou, Luna Tao, Xiaozhu Cui, Zhenyu Wang, Bingru Xu, An-Li Wang, Xi Zhao, Haijun Dong, Yan An, Yang Cao, Ruxue Li, Honglin Hu, Yuguo Yu

Status history

1. 1986 Contradicted The first piece of data is a no. In about a hundred and twenty American archers, from beginner to Olympic champion, the six attentional scales of Nideffer's questionnaire, which describe how broad or narrow attention is, whether it points outwards or inwards and how easily it overloads, are not linked to the year's average score: the highest correlation stops at 0.17. It is a style reported by the archer, not a test, and it is a single study: contradicted.
2. 2012 Contradicted The first instrumental measure arrives, but it does not answer the question. In ten archers and eight kyudo practitioners at a Japanese university, competitive level within the club is linked neither to how blinking is held back after a stimulus nor to reaction time, with correlations between -0.22 and 0.33 and none significant. It measures readiness, not how attention is distributed, and the status does not change.
3. 2015 Contested The first supporting result: seventy Greek elite archers fill in a mental skills questionnaire, and those who have competed for six years or more give themselves a higher concentration rating, 5.4 out of 6 against 4.7 for those competing for one or two years. Once again the archer is the judge, and it measures years of competition more than level, but there is now one study on each side: contested.
4. 2017 Contested The first objective supporting measure brings its own contrary with it. In sixty-five young Russian archers tested after a competition, those in the national squad make fewer errors on the red-and-black tables than their regional-level teammates (2.38 against 3.50) and finish sooner (4.26 against 4.79). In the same study, though, formal sporting grade, from third grade up to international masters, and years of practice make no difference on any test. Two studies for and two against, with one on both sides: contested.
5. 2019 Contested The first data on gaze arrive. Seven archers from the Korean national team and seven university archers watch, with an eye tracker, a film of the shot recorded from the archer's point of view: while waiting to step onto the line the national archers make more fixations (6.37 against 4.38) and fewer saccades (8.00 against 11.47), and look more at the target and the wind flags; while aiming, when a beep or a few coloured circles appear around the sight, their gaze stays steadier. The authors read this as attention that widens and narrows with the phase of the shot, which is exactly the claim. But these are seven people per group, seated in front of a screen without a bow, and the degrees of freedom in the analysis exceed what fourteen archers allow. Three studies for and two against, the supporting ones all small: the status stays contested.
6. 2021 Contested The largest comparisons arrive, but on samples that mix archery and shooting. Among a hundred and eleven Chinese athletes the national squad responds to an attention test 29 milliseconds sooner than the provincial squad (508 against 537), with the same accuracy, far less spread and even after allowing for age; alerting, orienting and conflict control, however, work the same way in both groups. In a second study from the same laboratory, on the same two squads and very probably partly on the same athletes, the national athletes perceive their own breathing better, by 11.5 percentage points, but not an external visual stimulus. The stronger athletes turn out quicker and more attentive to their own body, not better at distributing attention; and since these are two sports together, the status stays contested.
7. 2022 Contested The first comparison between levels on archers alone with electroencephalography: at rest the thirteen in the Chinese national squad spend more time than the thirteen provincial archers in the microstate linked to the dorsal attention system, and less in the other three. A dataset from the same year adds a higher alpha/beta ratio in shooting athletes, of whom archers are a part, but with no statistical test at all. The studies on archers become four for and two against, all cross-sectional; the supporting ones are all smaller than the 1986 study, which sits on the other side, and one of the two against comes from the same Russian study that also sits in favour: the count leans towards the claim without settling the disagreement, and the status stays contested.

Related

Related articles

• Where to put your attention: internal and external focus in archeryThink about the muscles or the sight? General research favoured an external focus, but in archers the score did not change. What changed was the brain's work.
• Concentration in archery: how it is measured, how much it matters and whether it can be trainedWhat studies on archers say about concentration: how it is measured, whether it tracks score, whether it fades late in a round and whether it can be trained.

Research lines

• 55 studiesAttention and cognition in archers: research since 1986
• 52 studiesMental training: what has been tested on archers since 1979

Other claims in this domain

• ReportedA larger working memory does not make an archer more accurate3 studies · 79 archers measuredStatus since 2012
• ReportedA longer quiet eye improves shooting accuracy3 studies · 58 archers measuredStatus since 2017
• ReportedA mental profile tells archers apart from athletes in other sports only in part5 studies · 550 archers measuredStatus since 2018
• ReportedA mental training programme improves the elite archer's mood1 study · 16 archers measuredStatus since 2023
• ReportedA mental training programme reduces burnout in elite archers1 study · 16 archers measuredStatus since 2023

See all claims on mind and attention