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Correlation between visuomotor abilities and pistol shooting performance in police trainees

Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Precision pistol shooting relies on the integration of visual perception and motor execution, yet the visuomotor abilities associated with marksmanship in police trainees remain poorly defined. Shooting-performance data were collected from 100 police trainees undergoing standardized firearms training using a controlled fixed-distance precision-shooting assessment. Visuomotor assessments were completed by 50 participants selected from the upper and lower quartiles of the shooting-score distribution. The assessment battery included visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, reaction time, target capture speed, depth perception, perception span, multiple object tracking, eye–hand coordination, and go/no-go decision making. Pearson correlations, Welch’s independent-samples t-tests, effect sizes (Cohen’s d), and Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate correction were applied, with Spearman correlations and Mann–Whitney U tests used as sensitivity analyses. After FDR correction across 27 correlations, only faster dominant-hand reaction time remained significantly associated with higher shooting scores ( r = − 0.453, p = 0.0009, q = 0.025). Right-eye visual acuity, binocular visual acuity, and target capture time showed nominal associations at the unadjusted level but did not survive correction. In the group comparisons, right-eye visual acuity and dominant-hand reaction time remained significant after FDR correction (both q = 0.048), whereas target capture time did not (q = 0.326). The dominant-hand reaction-time association remained significant after controlling for right-eye visual acuity (partial r = − 0.510, q = 0.004). An four-variable regression model explained 40.3% of the in-sample variance in shooting score (adjusted R² = 0.350). Dominant-hand reaction time (β = −0.442, p < 0.001) and right-eye visual acuity (β = −0.303, p = 0.015) retained independent inverse associations, whereas binocular visual acuity and target capture time did not. However, no association remained significant when correlations were examined separately within the high- and low-score groups. Dominant-hand reaction time therefore represented the most robust finding, while the visual-acuity and target-capture findings were less consistent across analyses and should be interpreted cautiously in the context of the extreme-group sampling design.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-70007-5
Language: English
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,690
OpenAlex ID: W7212293701
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