Investigating the dynamics of eye-hand coordination in first-person shooter video games

Introduction: Eye-hand coordination is critical in many daily tasks and essential in sporting contexts, directly relating to performance outcomes (1). This topic has been central in research on traditional sports, such as soccer (2) or basketball (3). However, newer gaming-related sports (e-sports) are rapidly emerging, involving sensorimotor control and the coordination of various cognitive processes, such as attention and memory (4). These skills are currently understudied. This work addresses this gap by examining the learning patterns underlying eye-hand coordination and performance in video games, focusing on the interplay of different cognitive functions. Methods: Twenty non-professional males (M = 28,2; SD = 2,57) and females (M = 26,1; SD = 3,22) played eight different first-person shooter video games (e.g., shooting fixed or moving targets, decision-making, memory, audio-spatial tasks, etc.) drawn from the “Aimlab” platform. Participants' eye movements were tracked using “EyeLink 1000” eye-tracker, while their hand responses were concurrently collected through “Weblink”, a screen recording software. Each game was repeated four times (4 repetitions x 8 games, totalling approximately 1 hour of gameplay). Results: The analysis focused on three of the eight video games: "gridShot" (fixed targets), "flickShot" (object tracking), and “decisionShot” (colour-based action selection), all involving rapid target selection. Using linear mixed-effects models with a by-subject random effect, we predicted the duration of the final fixation before clicking on a target as a function of a performance metric (integrating shot frequency, hit/miss rates, and reaction time) across the four repetitions. Overall, performance linearly improved across sessions in all games. Importantly, each game exhibited distinct patterns of overt attention time-locked-to-hand responses. "gridShot" showed a progressively linear increase in fixation duration over sessions, while "flickShot" showed the opposite trend. In "decisionShot," fixation duration displayed a non-linear dynamic, reaching an individual-specific maximum threshold that optimised performance. Discussion: To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate that the duration of target fixation before a hand response does not linearly predict performance in these types of video games. This finding contrasts with the "quiet eye" concept often described in traditional sports, where a linear relationship between overt attention and performance is typically observed. Future work will investigate whether this type of learning can enhance relevant cognitive functions and whether expertise influences eye-hand coordination strategies. References: 1. Hodges, N., et al. Skill acquisition in sport, 2012. 2. Van Maarseveen, M.J., et al. Human movement science, 2018 3. Sirnik, M., et al., International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 2022 4. Campbell, M.J., et al. Progress in brain research, 2018