Advances in coupling perception and action: the quiet eye as a bidirectional link between gaze, attention, and action.

One of the most elusive mysteries in psychology is perception-action coupling and the extent vision for perception is distinct from vision for action. In this chapter, I explore research on the control of the gaze during well-known sport tasks (vision for action) and the bidirectional link between perceptual and cognitive processes and optimal/nonoptimal motor performance. Considerable evidence now exists showing that specific gaze characteristics underlie higher levels of sport performance. The quiet eye has emerged as a characteristic of higher levels of performance and is the final fixation or tracking gaze that occurs prior to the final movement. Cognitive and ecological accounts of the quiet eye are presented and current controversies and future directions explored.