Visual Orienting in College Athletes: Explorations of Athlete Type and Gender

Covert orienting was measured in 50 college athletes and 51 nonathletes of both genders. Visual environments of the sports were both static (swimming, track) and dynamic (soccer, volleyball). Participants made speeded responses in a task measuring vigilance, alerting, automatic orienting, voluntary orienting, modulation of automatic orienting, and modulation of inhibition of return. Gender differences were found in the overall response times of nonathletes and in the alerting measures for all participants. However, all participants were similar in their automatic orienting. Sports-specific effects were seen in voluntary orienting and in the modulation of automatic orienting. These gender and sports-related findings are interpreted in light of the experience athletes have in the dynamic control of spatial attention.