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One study found that blind archers are no more accurate than non-archers at finding the middle of a rod by touch

2 studies · 20 archers measured

ForContextAgainst200520102015202020252024, context, n = 4832006, for, n = 202006, context, n = 20
Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

A single study, from 2006, compared ten French blind archers of regional level, classified B1, meaning no visual perception at all, with ten men with severe visual impairment who do no precision sport such as archery or shooting, all right-handed and aged 29 to 57. The task was to find by touch the middle of balsa sticks between 14 and 34 centimetres long. The authors expected the archers to be more accurate and found the opposite: a mean error of 1.23 against 0.98 (the paper records errors to the millimetre but does not say in what unit the means are given), and a perceived centre shifted to the left that the non-archers do not show. The disadvantage, though, appears in only one of the four combinations, right hand starting from the left end, while the effects of the hand used, the starting point and the length of the stick are the same in both groups. Ten people per group, a task far removed from what the shooting line demands and no replication in the registry: the result says only that in this sample shooting a bow does not go with a finer spatial sense of touch. A 2024 review picks it up, but mistakenly describes the comparison group as sighted.

Also phrased as: "archery for blind people"; "visually impaired archers"; "spatial sense in archers"; "tactile perception"

In practice

It is often said that archery sharpens the sense of space, and that for those who shoot without sight it also becomes a way of training touch and orientation.

Evidence

  • 2006
    For Archers Published later

    10 regional-level B1 blind archers against 10 men with severe visual impairment who do no precision sport, all right-handed men: in finding by touch the middle of ten sticks from 14 to 34 centimetres the mean absolute error is 1.23 ± 1.01 in the archers and 0.98 ± 0.78 in the others, in a unit the paper does not state, with errors recorded to the millimetre (F(1,18) = 13.14, p < 0.002). The difference depends on hand and starting point (F(1,18) = 6.42, p < 0.05) and is significant only with the right hand starting from the left.

    Tactile precision in right-handed archery experts with visual disabilities: A pseudoneglect effect? · J. P. Coudereau, N. Gueguen, M. Pratte, E. Sampaio

  • 2006
    Context Archers Published later

    The archers shift the perceived centre to the left, -0.27 ± 1.5 against 0.04 ± 1.2 in the non-archers (F(1,18) = 9.71, p < 0.01). The other effects are shared by both groups: with the right hand the centre drifts left (-0.45) and with the left hand right (+0.22, F(1,18) = 69.42), the starting point pushes the centre to the opposite side (F(1,18) = 15.53), and the longer the stick the lower the accuracy (F(9,162) = 4.78), with no interaction with group. For the starting-point effect the paper prints the same means as for the hand, -0.45 and +0.22, with slightly different standard deviations.

    Tactile precision in right-handed archery experts with visual disabilities: A pseudoneglect effect? · J. P. Coudereau, N. Gueguen, M. Pratte, E. Sampaio

  • 2024
    Context Review Published later

    Scoping review of adapted shooting disciplines: it picks up the 2006 study and reports the leftward tactile shift present only in the visually impaired archers, but describes the comparison group as sighted non-athletes, whereas in the original study they too had severe visual impairment.

    Adaptive Shooting Disciplines: A Scoping Review of the Literature with Bibliometric Analysis · Luca Puce, Carlo Biz, Halil Ibrahim Ceylan, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, Matteo Formica, Khaled Trabelsi, et al.

Status history

  1. 2006 Reported Ten blind archers and ten men with severe visual impairment who do not shoot, asked to find by touch the middle of sticks from 14 to 34 centimetres: the archers err more, 1.23 against 0.98, in a unit the paper does not state, and shift the perceived centre to the left. The disadvantage only appears, though, when exploring with the right hand from the left end. A single cross-sectional study, with ten people per group, and the result runs against the authors' hypothesis: the claim is written in the direction of the result and takes reported.
  2. 2024 Reported A review of adapted shooting disciplines picks up the 2006 study and summarises its result, the leftward shift present only in the archers, but describes the comparison group as sighted, whereas in the original study they too had severe visual impairment. It adds no new data, and the status stays reported.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). One study found that blind archers are no more accurate than non-archers at finding the middle of a rod by touch (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/tactile-perception-blind-archers

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_percezionetattilearcierinonvedenti,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {One study found that blind archers are no more accurate than non-archers at finding the middle of a rod by touch},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/tactile-perception-blind-archers},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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