Abstract
The present study examined the manual tracking performance of participants under both external and internal focus instructions while engaging either central or ambient vision. Participants were instructed to reproduce both spatial and temporal characteristics of two vertically oscillating targets (0 and 90 degree phasing relationship) displayed on a monitor in front of them, which required monitoring via their central (< 15 degrees from central fixation point) or ambient (>30 degrees from central fixation point) visual systems. Manual tracking performance was recorded while participants focused attention on either their hands (internal focus) or the handles they were grasping (external focus). Tracking accuracy (root mean square: RMS) and temporal accuracy (lag) results revealed that when internal focus instructions were paired with ambient visual conditions, temporal performance was comparable to external focus results, suggesting that internal focus deficits can be offset by engaging ambient vision. For RMS results, performance accuracy was superior only when ambient vision was used under the more difficult 90 degree tracking trials.
