A larger working memory does not make an archer more accurate

The summary today

Neither of the two studies that have looked at the question finds that working memory makes an archer more accurate, which is why the claim is written in the direction of the result. The first, in 2012, compares twenty Korean elite women archers, with fifteen years of competing on average and half of them on the national team, with twenty-three women who do not shoot, on a visuospatial working memory task during functional MRI: the archers answer correctly 47.9 per cent of the time against 40.6, a difference that does not hold up statistically, and response times do not separate them either. It is an indirect comparison, because it does not measure accuracy on the target, and it finds no sign that years of shooting at the highest level come with a larger working memory. The second, in 2025, is closer to the question: thirty-six Japanese university kyudo archers take a working memory test and then shoot twenty arrows at a 36-centimetre target, and there is no link between the two, r = -0.05, even after allowing for experience. It is, however, a conference abstract, and with thirty-six people a correlation this close to zero rules out a strong link at most, not a modest one. Meanwhile it has been shown that a single session of archery improves working memory in children aged 9 to 11, the more so the harder the task: working memory moves with shooting, but nobody has shown that moving it brings accuracy. Two small studies, one indirect and one on kyudo, pointing the same way: the evidence exists and it is limited.

Also phrased as: "working memory and archery"; "cognitive training and accuracy"; "archers' visuospatial memory"; "cognitive capacity and score"

Evidence

• 2012
  For Archers Published later

  20 Korean elite women archers, 15 ± 4.33 years of competing, all with more than 10 years of practice and 10 of the 20 on the national team, against 23 non-archers of similar age (28.9 against 26.3 years, p=0.49) and education, all right-handed: on the visuospatial working memory task during functional MRI, accuracy is 47.91 ± 19.09% against 40.62 ± 18.52% (p=0.29) and response time 8,404.69 against 9,128.76 ms (p=0.23) (p. 188, Table 1). It does not measure accuracy on the target.

  Stronger activation and deactivation in archery experts for differential cognitive strategy in visuospatial working memory processing · Jeehye Seo, Yang-Tae Kim, Hui-Jin Song, Hui Joong Lee, Jongmin Lee, Tae-Du Jung, et al.

• 2023
  Context General population Published later

  72 Chinese children aged 9-11, one session of traditional archery against an active control, non-randomised groups: on the N-back, adjusted accuracy is 86.3 against 79.0% on the 1-back (F=9.1, η²=0.12) and 75.2 against 62.9% on the 2-back (F=19.9, η²=0.22), with better reaction times only on the 2-back (F=4.44, η²=0.06) (pp. 6-8). Working memory improves after shooting; accuracy is not measured.

  The Effect of a Single Bout of Chinese Archery on Core Executive Functions in Preadolescent Children in Shanghai · Jianjun Liu, Surasak Taneepanichskul, Bo Zhang, Peter Xenos

• 2025
  For Kyudo archers Published later

  36 Japanese university kyudo archers, 21 men and 15 women, mean age 19.4: between Operation Span and the percentage of hits over 20 shots at a 36 cm target r=-0.05 (p=0.76), and in a multiple regression with experience β=-0.04 (p=0.85, 95% CI from -0.54 to 0.44) (p. 1). Conference abstract; with 36 people the null rules out a strong link at most, not a modest one.

  The Effect of Working Memory Capacity and Kyudo Experience on Kyudo Performance · Riko Kitahara, Yoko Okamura, Kenta Ishikawa

Status history

1. 2012 Reported The first study on archers: twenty Korean elite women archers, with fifteen years of competing on average and half of them on the national team, do no better than twenty-three women who do not shoot on a visuospatial working memory task, 47.9 against 40.6 per cent correct answers, and response times do not separate them either. It does not measure accuracy on the target, and it finds no sign that years of shooting at the highest level come with a larger working memory. A single, indirect study that runs against the starting idea: the claim is written in the direction of the result and takes reported.
2. 2023 Reported The direct evidence on archers is still the 2012 study. What arrives, as context, is that a single session of archery improves working memory in seventy-two Chinese children aged 9 to 11, the more so the harder the task: 75.2 against 62.9 per cent correct on the most demanding test. Working memory moves with shooting, but nobody has shown that moving it brings accuracy: the status stays reported.
3. 2025 Reported The first study arrives that sets working memory beside accuracy on the target. Thirty-six Japanese university kyudo archers take an Operation Span test and then shoot twenty arrows at a 36-centimetre target: between working memory capacity and the percentage of hits there is nothing, r = -0.05, and the null holds after allowing for experience. There are now two studies pointing the same way, but one is indirect and the other is a conference abstract on kyudo, too small to rule out a modest link: the status stays reported.

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Research lines

• 55 studiesAttention and cognition in archers: research since 1986
• 17 studiesJapanese studies of kyudo from 1964 to 2025

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