What they said instead was that they are hyper focused . They assume this narrow focus of attention almost like a spotlight is shining on a target . Now , when they're running a short distance , that target might literally be the finish line , the line that they're trying to cross .
And , and , and what else can we do with playing around with this ? Yeah , those are impressive differences uh as a consequence of narrowing visual attention , a couple of questions about the actual practice of narrowing attention . Is there any indication of whether or not subjects um are constantly updating their visual attention ?
That's all they're paying attention to . It's really narrowed scope of attention . And that was a strategy that they , that all of these elite athletes said that they used and those that were better rather than , um , you know , that then slower were ones that used it more .
If people can do that , we have them say out loud , what is it that's captured your attention ? And of course , sometimes something in the periphery like movement captures our gaze and , and we are pulled there for , for an instant , but then we can refocus up again and adopt that narrowed attention . Now , one of the first studies that we did was was teach that strategy and juxtapose or compare it against a group that we said , just look around naturally .
And what we found is that those people have better pace , faster , pace , better time . Um They use that narrowed strategy more often than this more expansive or , you know , open scope of attention . And there seemed to be a correlation between that better performance among a wider swath of hundreds of , of runners who are doing it competitively , but still , you know , could be like the person that you're sitting next to in the office or yourself , right ?
