Target-directed visual attention is a prerequisite for action-specific perception Rouwen Cañal-Bruland a, ⁎, Frank F. Zhu b , John van der Kamp a,b , Rich S.W. Masters b a Research Institute MOVE, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands b Institute for Human Performance, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China abstract article info Article history: Received 9 June 2010 Received in revised form 1 December 2010 Accepted 2 December 2010 Available online xxxx PsychINFO classification: 2300 2323 2330 2340 2346 Keywords: Action Perception Performance Witt et al. (2008) have recently shown that golfers who putt with more success perceive the hole to be bigger than golfers who putt with less success. In three experiments, we systematically examined whether this phenomenon, labelled action-specific perception, depends on directing visual attention towards the action target. In Experiment 1 we replicated previously reported action-specific effects on perception in golf putting. In Experiments 2 and 3 we directly assessed whether action-specific effects on perception in golf putting are dependent on focusing visual attention on the target. To this end, the participants performed the putting task while visual attention towards the target was either completely withheld (Experiment 2) or divided over the target and other task-relevant objects (Experiment 3). No action-specific effects were found when visual attention towards the action target was occluded or partially diverted from the target. Together, our results provide evidence to suggest that focusing visual attention on the target while performing the action is a prerequisite for the emergence of action-specific perception. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Recently, Witt and Dorsch (2009) provided empirical evidence that football players perceive the posts to be farther apart and the crossbar to be lower on successful days. Similarly, softball players who perform well perceive the softball to be bigger than their less successful counterparts (Witt & Proffitt, 2005). Golfers also show the same phenomenon. Witt, Linkenauger, Bakdash, and Proffitt (2008) asked golfers after they had played a round of golf to estimate the size of the hole by choosing one of nine black circles presented to them on a poster. Perceived hole size was correlated with golf performance. Those golfers who performed better on the day judged the hole to be bigger than those who performed worse. In follow-up experiments, Witt et al. replicated this finding using a golf putting task in their laboratory. Consequently, Witt et al. have argued that perception of the environment is not completely determined by optical information, but also by the actor's ability to perform effectively in the environment (see also Proffitt, 2006). This phenomenon has been labelled as action- specific influences on perception (Witt & Proffitt, 2008). Cañal-Bruland and van der Kamp (2009) recently extended the work by Witt and colleagues, showing that action-specific influences on perception are contingent upon the primary action goals to be achieved. Cañal-Bruland and van der Kamp used a Schokokusswurf- maschine to manipulate the action goals in a throwing and catching game. The Schokokusswurfmaschine is a game in which children throw a ball at a target. If the target is struck a second ball is launched, which the child must catch. Cañal-Bruland and van der Kamp instructed the children to either only hit the target or to catch the ball that would be launched when they hit the target. The latter instruction demoted hitting the target to an intermediate action goal. The results suggested that action-specific influences on perceived size only occur for target objects that are related to the end goal of an action, not for objects that are related to the intermediate action goal. Cañal-Bruland and van der Kamp (2009) interpreted their results as evidence for the perceptual accentuation hypothesis. This hypothesis claims that when a person intends to act on a target object, this action- relevant object becomes perceptually accentuated (e.g., is perceived bigger) so that it stands out among other environmental stimuli (Bruner, 1957; Bruner & Postman, 1949). In other words, Cañal-Bruland and van der Kamp (2009) suggest that planned actions drive how objects to-be-acted-upon are perceived. In keeping with Bruner's idea (1957) they further argue that changes in perception, such as perceiving action objects as being bigger, might be functional in the sense that they serve to facilitate performance on that specific target. Theories of selective visual attention have argued in a similar way. For example, in his selection-for-action approach Allport (1987) suggested that actors select specific environmental information in Acta Psychologica xxx (2011) xxx–xxx ⁎ Corresponding author. Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 9, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 20 5988475. E-mail address: r.bruland@fbw.vu.nl (R. Cañal-Bruland). ACTPSY-01592; No of Pages 5 December 23, 2010; Model: Gulliver 5 0001-6918/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2010.12.001 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Acta Psychologica journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/ locate/actpsy Please cite this article as: Cañal-Bruland, R., et al., Target-directed visual attention is a prerequisite for action-specific perception, Acta Psychologica (2011), doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2010.12.001