Differences in saccadic latency and express saccades between skilled and novice ball players in tracking predictable and unpredictable targets at two visual angles.

The purpose of the study was to investigate saccadic latency and percentage of express saccades involved in predictable tasks between skilled and novice ball players. Participants performed four different tasks, including time and direction unpredictable task, time predictable task, direction predictable task, and time and direction predictable task at the visual angles of 10 and 20 degrees. Skilled ball players had shorter mean saccadic latency than novice players on direction and time and direction predictable tasks. The percentage of express saccades of skilled ball players was higher than that of novice players on the latter. Saccadic latency was shorter in the 10 degrees condition in time and direction unpredictable task and time predictable task than for 20 degrees. These results suggested that predictive ability might be one of the general characters distinguishing skilled ball athletes from novices in visuomotor performance. The prediction might reduce the mean difference in the saccadic latency at various visual angles.