Want to be a sports star? Here's how The 2012 Olympics in London are about to start, and millions around the world will admire and ponder the mysteries of athletic performance. Psychological scientists are no exception. Researchers have examined how visual illusions improve sports performance, how attitudes and beliefs about competence determine performance and what exactly happens when we indulge in silly sports rituals. Get Me Out of This Slump! Visual Illusions Improve Sports Performance One way to sink that put, make the free throw, hit the bull's eye with the arrow, is to think the target is bigger than it really is. That's the surprising conclusion of a study in Psychological Science , a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. In 2005, psychological scientist and competitive athelete Jessi Witt of Purdue University played on the U.S. National Ultimate Frisbee team, which won the gold medal at the World Games. Her interest in sports extended to her professional work and in this study, she and her co-authors explored visual perception and sports performance. When athletes look directly at the target without moving their eyes around -- a pattern known as the Quiet Eye -- they make more free throws, putts or other tasks. Can manipulating the size of the target affect performance? Thirty six participants putted to two physically different sized holes, but with one, a projector distorted the hole to make it look larger. The illusion worked. Putters made their mark more successfully to the perceptually bigger hole.