Field or Previews?

I'm wondering what you Tetris pros look at when you play. The field, as in what you're building, or the previews, the pieces that are coming. Or do you just kinda unfocus your eyes and look at both. Which do you think is best?

 

Eyes on the field. Peripheral vision takes in the previews (shape and color).
Shape becomes important when you do [ ] blocks.

 

Depends on the game I'm playing. If there's entry delay (ARE) I'll glance up at the previews after every single tetramino is played. If there's no ARE and the screen is huge I'll keep my eye on the field and rely on seeing the ghost piece of the next Tetramino to determine where I'm going to put it. If the screen is small, I'll keep my eye mainly on the field, and keep the previews in my peripheral vision.

... I chose both in the poll.

 

I chose both, but the focus is on the playfield. Like rednefed said, you can discern the previews through peripheral vision for the most part. I do, however, occasionally look up/over to the previews.

 

I don't even know anymore. I'll pay attention next time I play.

 

I look at the field when I'm on low gravity. At highspeed (Death 300+), I find that I play better if I look midway between them.

 

This, bleh. Probably some of both sometimes.

 

This is very clear to me coming off my latest Shirase record. I sort of look between the previews and the stack, but not directly at either, playing both from my peripheral vision. I'll change the focus of my attention back and forth without actually moving my eyes.

 

I think you mainly have to rely on peripheral vision to try to see both, but your gaze might switch back and forth when it's more important to focus on the stack or the previews. One thing I noticed playing invisible is if I let my focus off the stack, even though it's not like I can see anything there, I lose my mental image of the stack or can't get reoriented with exactly what row/column things are in, so I try to ignore the next pieces and focus on picturing where the stack is. I'm not very good at invisible though, so maybe other people do it differently.

 

i like the preview in blockbox. this allows you to look at the field and see the next piece just right above the highest nonempty line in the field.

 

I usually focus on the center of the field and let my peripheral vision take care of the rest

 

P stands for peripheral and previews

 

I find what I usually do is watch the field, and identify previews by color through glances or peripheral vision.

As for a hold piece, I seem to have a knack for simply remembering what the hold piece is without having to check.

 

I do exactly the same.. Color identification and hold by memory. (sometimes causing weird moments where I thought I had an I-piece in the pocket and it turned out to be a Z instead. )