Kauffman, D. C., Clark, J. F., & Smith, J. C. (2014). The influence of sport goggles on visual target detection in elite athletes. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 46(5), Supplement abstract number 1739.

This study examined the effects of wearing sport goggles on visual target detection in elite female athletes (Division I; N = 54). Ss were randomly divided into three groups which varied in goggle use over three one-minute trials. The NG-NG-NG group did not wear goggles for any of the three trials. The NG-G-NG group only wore goggles for Trial 2 and the G-NG-G group wore them for Trials 1 and 3. Dynavision D2, a board with 64 lights arranged in five concentric circles, was used to test response time to visual targets.

Those who went from no goggles on Trial 1 to goggles on Trial 2, did not improve as those who did not wear goggles on Trial 2 regardless of whether goggles were worn or not in Trial 1. The most significant result was the reversal of the practice and performance effects in the G-NG-G group on Trial 3. From Trials 1 to 2, this group showed clear improvement in performance; however, going from no goggles (Trial 2) to goggles (Trial 3), the group’s response time in Rings 4 and 5 increased. Taken together, these findings suggest that sport goggles not only impaired the expected practice/learning effects from Trial 1 to 2 but also impaired response time to the more peripheral targets in the well-learned state.

Implication. Detection of visual stimuli appearing in the peripheral visual field was impaired in elite athletes when sport goggles were worn.

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