As William James, one of the founding
fathers of psychology famously declared, “Everyone knows what attention is”
(1890). Or do we? Meta-attention, quite simply, relates to ones understanding
or awareness of the processes of attention. We have all been told down the
years to ‘tune in’, ‘pay attention’ or ‘don’t let your mind wander’, but
questions such as- What processes mediate attention? And how can I improve my
attentional skills? are important for learning in all contexts. Attention and
meta-attention has seen a recent upsurge in empirical interest from psychology
and cognitive neuroscience among others (Vickers, 2007; Wilson, Wood &
Vine, 2009). Given this interest, the current paper will examine meta-attention
in professional skills, namely sport skills. Visual attentional control will be
examined in light of recent and ongoing research into a phenomenon known as
Quiet Eye (Cambell & Moran, 2005; 2006; Vine & Wilson, 2011. Quiet eye
is a long steady visual fixation on a target during the pre shot routine
immediately prior to executing a sports skill (e.g. golf putt) and has been
associated with increased cognitive processing and superior subsequent
performance (Vickers, 1992, 2007; 2009). Quiet eye findings have the potential
to increase our understanding of visual attention and also to teach strategies
to augment visual attention in sport and learning environments.