Visuo-motor coordination in table tennis.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to determine how the acquisition of visual information through movements of the eyes and head affected the execution and accuracy of a complex motor skill. Participants performed a table tennis forehand stroke to right or left target area under Pre, Early, and Late-cue conditions. The visual cue was presented respectively a mean of 2,366, 521, and 327 ms before participants to contact the ball. Quiet eye (QE, Vickers, 1996a), tracking during movement time (TMT), and eye-head stabilization (EHS, Ripoll & Fleurance, 1988) characterized gaze behaviour. Movement time (MT) and velocity of arm at ball-bat contact (AVC) assessed arm behaviour. The three-dimensional kinematics of simultaneous line of gaze, head, arm, and ball motion was quantitatively described in a natural environment for the first time. In the Pre and Early-cue conditions, both high and low skill participants tracked the ball in the initial part of ball flight (QE) and kept the gaze stable on a location in advance of the ball prior to ball contact (EHS). The ball was not tracked late in ball flight, with TMT being observed in only 16 of 480 trials. The effect of skill level was observed through an early onset of ball tracking, which led to higher levels of accuracy only for the high skill group. The manipulation of cueing showed the limits of adaptation to maintain accuracy on the target. Participants were able to accommodate Early-cue levels of constraint by using a shorter QE duration, earlier QE offset, and reduced AVC. In the Late-cue condition, a generalized decrease of gaze, head, and arm movement was not sufficient to preserve accuracy. QE onset and offset occurred earlier and QE duration declined. AVC remained reduced compared to the Pre-cue condition. Horizontal movement of gaze and head declined as well. EHS onset, duration, and offset did not differ significantly across cue conditions. There were no significant changes in MT duration across cue conditions. The occurrence of both QE and EHS within a trial decreased from 83%, to 79%, to 38% of trials during the Pre, Early, and Late-cue conditions, respectively.