The role of prediction and visual tracking strategies during manual interception: An exploration of individual differences

The interception (or avoidance) of moving objects is a common component of various daily living tasks, however, it remains unclear whether precise alignment of foveal vision with a target is important for motor performance. Furthermore, there has also been little examination of individual differences in visual tracking strategy and the use of anticipatory gaze adjustments. We examined the importance of in-flight tracking and predictive visual behaviours using a virtual reality environment that required participants (n = 41) to intercept tennis balls projected from one of two possible locations. Here, we explored whether different tracking strategies spontaneously arose during the task, and which were most effective. While indices of closer in-flight tracking (pursuit gain, tracking coherence, tracking lag, and saccades) were predictive of better interception performance, these relationships were rather weak. Anticipatory gaze shifts towards the correct release location of the ball provided no benefit for subsequent interception. Nonetheless, two interceptive strategies were evident: 1) early anticipation of the ball’s onset location followed by attempts to closely track the ball in flight (i.e., predictive strategy); or 2) positioning gaze between possible onset locations and then using peripheral vision to locate the moving ball (i.e., a visual pivot strategy). Despite showing much poorer in-flight foveal tracking of the ball, participants adopting a visual pivot strategy actually performed slightly better in the task. Overall, these results indicate that precise alignment of the fovea with the target may not be vital for interception tasks, but that observers can adopt quite varied visual guidance approaches.