Visual attention is our ability to meet various stimuli and change between different ones. As our attention is limited, when skiing we should choose specific objects, people or places to orient our visual attention since we can only detect details focusing one thing at a time. The attention that attracts interest and precedes action comes from the visual field (Berthoz, 2009).
Our visual attention is altered in stressful situations (high speed, complicated terrain, heavy traffic) as well as in fatigue conditions, all of which we tend to use our central vision. In these circumstances, we operate under a visual “automated” system, omitting the identification of relevant information, which induces visual attention deterioration, while adapting to the situation.
Selective visual attention
We are constantly exposed to visual information during motion. Visual selective attention allows visual information filtering, picking up relevant details at the same time we ignore others. This information processing skill is limited and only a part of the incoming information applies to guide our skiing. During our initial learning, it was normal to look at inappropriate places at improper times due to our lack of experience and stress, altering our visual attention.
Our capability to select visual stimuli is composed of two mechanisms: one selects the most relevant inputs that benefit our skiing behavior, and the other inhibits irrelevant or distracting ones that could alter our skiing.
Selective visual attention and attraction/distraction conditions
During visual selective attention of the environment, our eyes examine what is going on in the visual field periphery, and this condition is divided into attractors and distractors stimuli.
Distractors stimuli are static or moving objects or people, brightness or strong colors, angular shapes and every situation that tends to distract our attention, all of which should be ignored or suppressed for efficient performance.
Attractors stimuli are places or conditions that we perceive as action possibilities (affordances), which we should deal with. For example, at facing imminent danger, the beginner tends to set his gaze longer to the threatening situation, inhibiting his behavior (distraction phenomenon), while the expert skier looks at places (attraction phenomenon) that he can move on to avoid the dangerous situation.
If we are disturbed by distracting conditions, we can consider that we have an ineffective visual search whereas, if these conditions have a limited or no effect on us, it indicates that our visual search is effective.
Distraction conditions alter our attention because it is directed toward distracting information, which reduces the possibility of relevant information pickup, inducing performance decrease.
Attraction and distraction situations
Attraction situations could be, for most skiers, a wide, gentle and well-groomed slope, minor traffic, and good snow. Other skiers are attracted to deep snow, off-piste or backcountry, skiing in the woods or glades, moguls, steeps or jumps.
Distracting situations can be classified into internal, as a nonspecific look away from the current path like looking at our skis, thinking something else, fatigue, greeting someone while in motion, participating in a second activity (listening to music or self-filming) or paying attention to a not well-adjusted ski boot. External distracting situations may be other people in the slope, stones or rocks, signage, trees, snowmobiles or ski patrollers, lift towers or slope intersections.
Inattentional blindness
Our ability to move in the mountain environment depends essentially on properly managing the relevant visual information ignoring the irrelevant one. Since we do not always pay attention to what we look at, inattentional blindness appears, which is our inability to perceive certain stimuli when our visual attention is involved in another task.
Perceiving changes in the environment is a clear advantage as it enhances the response to changes by allowing enough time to adapt (Beanland & Pammer, 2010) but, on certain occasions, we can experience events without being able to visually detect them. Some stimuli or environmental characteristics do not reach our consciousness and one reason why this occurs may be that we perceive the stimulus as irrelevant.
For example, when orienting our vision to an optimal bumps’ line, we may not notice another skier who, unexpectedly, appears in our visual field. It is not that we cannot see it, but that our brain is oriented toward a particular goal. This makes it possible to interpret that when we pay visual attention to something that is happening in front of us, we tend not to perceive casual situations around us.
Since our brain attends only to what it matters (the mogul’s line), it cannot consciously record all the details of the visual scene. This is because by directing our attention to something concrete, our brain allocates perceptual and cognitive resources towards that and, at the same time, limits the conscious entry of information that is not relevant to what we are doing.
Spatial factors such as distance can influence our visual attention. Other factors are the difficulty of the current execution, the level of our attention or the appearance of distracting stimuli.
The superior colliculus is the crucial brain structure for focusing attention. Its activity, including the ‘topographic map’ of the visual environment (Krauzlis, 2009), is crucial to select the characteristics to respond to by orienting our eyes and head. Our gaze and our attention work together by focusing the terrain configuration and traffic conditions but, in some cases, we look to one place while directing our attention to another.
The overtorienting is the act of selectively attending to a particular object or place moving our eyes into that direction. In addition to the above mentioned ocular capabilities, our eye movements are divided into two types: reflex and controlled. The reflex movement is one in which our eyes move quickly activated by a sudden appearance of a stimulus and is commanded by the superior colliculus. The controlled movement is slow and voluntary being commanded by our frontal lobe, that is, it depends on cognitive factors.
The covert orientingis to mentally change the focus without moving our eyes, that is, modify the orientation of our attention without using gaze movements.
According to these considerations, you can apply the following recommendations in your own skiing:
- Remember that as your attention is limited, you should choose specific objects, people or places to orient your gaze since you can only detect details focusing one thing at a time.
- Consider that your visual attention is altered in stressful situations, so you will tend to use your central vision and this will predispose you to ignore the identification of relevant information.
- Try to categorize between two groups of conditions or situations when skiing. Distractors stimuli will tend to distract your attention, instead, attractors will help you to perceive your actions’ possibilities.
