Cognitive Psychology For Sports Performance

Question 1

What is performance

Answer 1

The behavioural act of executing a skill at a specific time and in a specific situation
Performance is temporary

Question 2

What is learning

Answer 2

A change in the capability of a person to perform a skill; it must be inferred from a relatively per any improving in performance as a result of practice or experience 
Learning is (relatively) permanent

Question 3

What is deliberate practice

Answer 3

Based on the idea that expertise in any domain is tied explicitly to the amount and type of training or practice performed in that domain
Challenging and effortful
Requires repetition and feedback
Completed for the purpose of performance enhancement
May not inherently enjoyable or immediately rewarding (Ericsson, 2003, 2007, 2008)

Question 4

Self-Regulation

Answer 4

Self regulation = self-generated thoughts, feelings and behaviours that are planned and cyclically adapted based on performance feedback (Zimmermann, 1989, 1998)

Experts differ not just in what they do in practice sessions (deliberate practice)
Experts can also control the intensity and duration of their behaviours surrounding practice

Question 5

Zimmerman’s three phases of self-regualtion

Answer 5

Performance phase

                      (Record performance)

Forethought phase Self-reflection phase
(Set process goals) (Attribution error)

Question 6

Singer (1988) Five Step Approach

Answer 6

For self-paced (closed) motor tasks

1. Ready - physical, emotional, psychological - aware of breathing environment thoughts
2. Image - visual & Kinaesthetic - may include self-talk - increases awareness of instructions, task demands and own movement
3. Focus - concentrate intensely on one relevant feature of the situation eg Seams of tennis ball
4. Execute - perform without thinking of movement of the outcome
5. Evaluate - effectiveness of the movement and the effectiveness of each of the five steps

Question 7

Cognitive effort

Answer 7

The mental work involved in making decisions (Lee, Swinnen & Serrien, 1994)
Comparing analysing, evaluating, deciding requires cognitive effort and produces learning
Mindless repetitions does not require cognitive effort

Question 8

Blocked vs random practice (contextual interference

Answer 8

Blocked practice eg AAABBBCCC
LOW contextual interference

Random practice eg ABCABCABC
HIGH contextual interference

Question 9

Contextual interference effect

Answer 9

Performing multiple skills in a random order disrupts performance but may benefit learning
Supported by Shea & Morgan (1979)

Question 10

Explains CI effect: Elaboration Hypothesis

Answer 10

Shea & Morgan (1979)

Memories for movement (or motor programs) exist in a long term memory, and are recalled every time we perform an action

Question 11

Predictions of Elaborative Hypothesis

Answer 11

High contextual inter fences leads to the formation of more elaborate memories which:
Facilitates memory retrieval, and
Are more resistant to decay
Prediction: if you could measure how elaborating memories are, then after a period of practice, participants in a random group should have more elaborate memories
Due to more elaborative processing = more elaborative memories

Question 12

Evidence for elaboration

Answer 12

Interviews after a CL experiment
BLOCKED group subject B: After a couple of times… didn’t take real conscious effort

RANDOM group subject W: The green one is essentially the mirror image of the red
Shea & Zimney (1983)

Question 13

Action Plan Reconstruction

Answer 13

Lee & Magill’s (1985) Action Plan Reconstruction theory offers another explanation of the contextual interference effect based on the amount of processing that occurs between working memories and LTM
BLOCKED practice: plan for action remains in working memory (limited processing)
RANDOM practice: plan for action must be actively reconstructed on each trail (higher processing

Repeating the process of solving a problem (Bernstein)

Question 14

Challenge point framework

Answer 14

The benefits of random practice (vs blocked practice) for learning will be increased for the tasks of lowest nominal difficulty (ie simple motor skills)
Low levels of CI may be better for beginner skill levels of CI may be better for more highly skilled individuals? A continuum rather than blocked vs random practice - serial practice
Finding the optimal challenge point is key

Question 15

What did Schmidt & Wrisberg (2004) say (CI)

Answer 15

Repetitions are essential for learning, repetitiveness is not

Question 16

Wulf et al. (1998)

Answer 16

First direct empirical test on focus of attention
33 participants performers shalom-type movement on a ski-simulator
Experimental groups differed on type of instructions they receive to guide focus of attention
Internal = focus on keeping feet horizontal
External = focus on keeping wheels horizontal
Control = no focus intructions
Internal focus was not more effective than no instructions
External focus = larger movement amplitudes and enchanted learning

Question 17

Internal vs external focus

Answer 17

Internal - directed at specific actions of the body eg step by step technical points, focus on: swing of the arms, wrist motion/hand movement darts

External - directed at the effects that the movement will have on the environment
Focus on : swing of the club, rim of the basket, on the bullseye

Question 18

Constrained action hypothesis

Answer 18

Proposed that internal vs external focus instructions induce differing modes of motor control

Internal focus - causes people to consciously control the processes that would otherwise automatically regulate movement coordination. Effective and efficient natural motor coordination processes are constrained by intervening with these processes

External focus- promotes an automatic, unconscious fast, reflective mode of motor control and organisation. Reduces concours interference in the automatic processes controlling our movements, therefore resulting in enhanced performance and learning

Question 19

What can conscious control cause

Answer 19

‘Paralysis by analysis’

Question 20

Distance effects

Answer 20

Increasing the distance if the attentional focus from the body might accentuate the advantages of an external focus

Proximal foci may be too similar to internal focus
(McNevin, Shea & Wulf

Question 21

Distance and expertise

Answer 21

Wulf et al. 2000
For beginners, external focus effects may not be able to be related to the body movements that produce it.
A nearer focus eg club may be more directly related to the appropriate movement pattern

Question 22

Vallacher (1993)

Answer 22

Control over movements and actions is represented hierarchically
As we become more skilled the action becomes controlled at progressively higher levels

Question 23

Proximal vs Distal Foci

Answer 23

Distal external (ball path) focus shown to be more effective in golf putting than proximal external (club focus) in golf putting (Kearney, 2014)

Question 24

Knowledge & Learning

Answer 24

Knowledge about motor skills exists in two forms: Declarative Knowledge & Procedural Knowledge

Learning may be explicit or implicit

Question 25

Declarative Knowledge

Answer 25

Knowledge you can declare about performing the skill - knowing ‘what’ to do
Usually associated with technical instructions and ‘rules’ related to performing a skill
For example ‘I need to move the club head back smoothly and keep my head still’ (Maxwell et al., 2006)

Question 26

Procedural Knowledge

Answer 26

Knowing HOW to do a skill, but not necessarily being able to verbalise each step
Knowing how to perform a skill under strict time constraints in sport, but not necessarily able to identify each step or rule
‘Automatic’ processing eg riding a bicycle
Less prone to breakdown under pressure

Question 27

Explicit learning

Answer 27

Learning through the development of declarative rules specifying behaviour
Learning is the process of incorporating hundreds of these rules into your action
Learning is the process of incorporating hundreds of these rules into your actions
Typically heavily involved in novice learning
When elite athletes perform optimally often they don’t think about anything (Williams & Keane, 2001)

Question 28

Knowledge complication

Answer 28

Knowledge complication is the term that Anderson (1992, 1996) uses to describe the process by which bits of declarative knowledge, and the rules explaining their connections, are combined into larger memory chunks
This is a gradual process. The greater the degree of learning, the larger the chunks that are formed
Therefore, an athlete can have both procedural and declarative knowledge

Question 29

Choking under pressure

Answer 29

Defined as ‘performance deferments under circumstances that increase the importance of good or improved performance’ (Baumeister, 1984)

Paralysis by analysis (Jackson & Beilock, 2007)

Constrained action hypothesis (Wulf et al., 2001
Paying too much attention disrupts skill execution

Question 30

Reinvestment theory

Answer 30

Is underpinned by the view that procedures, or movements, can be disrupted if the performer tries to control them consciously with declarative knowledge (Masters, 1992)
Proposes that, under pressure, performers consciously attempt to focus their attention on the process of how to perform the task, thus disrupting the normal automatic processing of the task (Kinrade et al., 2010)

Question 31

Masters solution to learning

Answer 31

If no (minimal) declarative knowledge is ever formed .. then no reinvestment can occur

Question 32

Two visual systems

Answer 32

Ventral pathway is involved in using optical information for (conscious) perception of object information in the environment IDENTIFICATION
Dorsal pathway is involved in use of optical information in the (unconscious) control of goal-directed actions ACTION

Question 33

Neurological dissociation

Answer 33

Ventral pathway damaged for participant ‘df’, dorsal still intact
Perception of orientation negatively affected - couldn’t ‘line up’ or identify how the slot was orientated
Movement control (wrist rotation) stop accurate when asked to perform action (eg post through the slot)
Hence, use of information for perception and action are not identical
Goodale et al. (1991)

Question 34

The anatomy of two visual systems

Answer 34

There is neurological ebeifence to show that these relatively independent pathways for information exist
The first key message from this lecture is that different parts of the brain are responsible for identifying what objects are (ventral stream) and for interacting with those objects, or acting upon them (dorsal stream)
This has implications for perception in sport - are athletes perceiving objects/identifying them, or perceiving direct opportunity to act

Question 35

Accordances

Answer 35

From an ecological perspective, performers identify opportunity for action
Perception of affordable depend on an individuals action capabilities
Differ g individuals can perceive different affordances using the same information
Changing the environment can change affordances.. implications for practice design in sport (eg changing size of pitch/equipment

Question 36

Implicit learning

Answer 36

Learning without forming explicit technical rules

Prevents athletes from reinvesting declarative knowledge in high pressure situations

Question 37

Implicit learning via dual tasks

Answer 37

Masters (1992) initially suggested that if a performer occuupied the working memory with another task, this prevent rules about the primary task being formed
Dual tasks in research include
Random letter generation
Tone counting
Counting backwards
Interviews after practice have showed these methods may prevent rule formation

Question 38

Analogy learning

Answer 38

Counter-intuitively relies on explicit based instructions
However aims to reduce information load on working memory by ‘chunking’ task rules into a simple metaphor/ analogy
Information is not rule-based but represents a meaningful template about the concept
1 simple metaphor as opposed to a complex serious of explicit statements

Question 39

Cookie jar Analogy

Answer 39

Tom Amberry made 2750 consecutive free throws at 71 years of age in 1993
Amberry advises that his routine was to bounce the ball three times, with the inflation hole up, then to imagine that this arm is 15 feet long and simply drop the ball though the basket
When combined with ‘putting your hand in a cookie jar’ this acts as a power analogy rather than technical instructions (Masters, 2008)

Question 40

Benefits of analogy learning

Answer 40

Coach is engaged in the learning process by designed analogies
Easy to digest chunks of information
Little declarative knowledge to reinvest in high pressure situations

Question 41

Ecological dynamics and instruction

Answer 41

Shape the game/activity to be the teacher, rather than direct instruction
Shape the game = manipulate constraints (rules, equipment, score)
Develop quick passing = manipulate a ‘two touch’ rule
Instructions should be an inherent part of the game/activity
Newell’s (1986) model of constraints

Question 42

Ecological Dynamics

Answer 42

Ecological = relationship between living species and their environment
Dynamics = humans are dynamical, adaptive systems
Argues against ‘top down’ control (ie the brain controls every movement)
Argues in favour of ‘bottom-up’ control (ie the environment and surroundings constraints directly shape and influence the emergence of actions)
Perception-action coupling (Gibson, 1979)

Question 43

Meta-Stability (Hristovski et al., 2006)

Answer 43

Learning can be enchanted by putting the learner in the meta-stable regions (eg where multiple movement patterns can be used, or switched to)
To enable the flexible switching between punches, the boxers’ movement system had to be poised at the edge of instability
Each punching mode can be spontaneously activated under the perceived task constraints (opponent, distance to ropes)

Question 44

Representative learning design (Pinder et al., 2011)

Answer 44

The situations sampled in training environments should be representative of those encountered in performance contexts
Participants must be representative of those the study wishes to generalise, the experimental task contaminants must also represent the environmental (performance) constraints to which they are to be generalised
This can ensure functionality and action fidelity in interventions, as well as in coaching, training and learning
Action fidelity + Functionality

Question 45

What does functionality and action fidelity mean (Brunswick, 1956)

Answer 45

Functionality: Cues should be sampled from the organism’s typical environment
Action fidelity: How similar is the movement

Question 46

Ball projection machines vs live bowler

Answer 46

Maximum backswing height of the drive significantly higher against bowlers compared to bowling machine

Maximum backswing height of the defence higher against bowlers compared to bowling machine

Question 47

Affective learning design (Headrick et al., 2015)

Answer 47

Practice should represent the emotions of competition, adding another layer to representative learning design
Emotions are not only highly influenced by the constraints of the task, but also act as individual constraints on future behaviours in a reciprocal fashion
Designing learning environments which force athletes into meta stable regions (physically and emotionally) may result in the development of higher levels of expertise

Question 48

Influence of contextual factors (Pocock et al., 2018)

Answer 48

Place kickers that has missed their previous kick were 7% less successful than kickers that had scored previous kick in 2015 RWC

Question 49

Limitations of representative design

Answer 49

Can you ever completely represent a performance environment
Consistency/familiarity of facing a live opponent
How can we measure that the athletes are experiencing the same emotions in training
Applied interventions - with teams and athletes conscious of the balance between training/recovery time, are video based studies going to be preferred

Question 50

Constraints led approach

Answer 50

Constraints are boundaries which shape the emergence of behaviour (Davids, 2010)
Coordination : tempo ty task- specific organisation that self organise under multiple interacting constraints
Adapting to constraints in performance environment
Because of this - we never move exactly the same way twice

Question 51

Newell’s model of Constraints (1986)

Answer 51

Triangle
Organismic - body size, shape anthropometric characteristics; self confidence, anxiety, fitness+ fatigue

Environment - weather, pitch style, length of grass, presence of crowd+ altitude

Task - laws/rules of the game, number of touches, pitch/court size
All leads to emergent behaviour

Question 52

Perceptual-Cognitive Skills

Answer 52

Perceptual cognitive skills have been defined as the ability to identify and process environmental information, and integrate them with pre-existing knowledge and motor capabilities, to select and execute adequate actions eg Marteniuk (1976)
They include pattern recognition, anticipation, decision-making and visual exploratory activity

Question 53

Perceptual-Cognitive skills in sport

Answer 53

Postural cue usage = the ability to pick-up early or advance cues from the postural orientation of opponents
Pattern recognition = the ability to recognise task-specific patterns and structure in an evolving situation
Situational probabilities = the ability to generate more accurate predictions as to what others are likely to do in any given situation
Guided by effective visual search strategies, these perceptual-cognitive skills underpin effective anticipation and decision-making (Roca & Williams, 2016)

Question 54

Anticipation and decision making

Answer 54

Anticipation - the ability to predict an opponents action to allow sufficient time with which to produce an appropriate response (Broadbent et al., 2014)

Decision making - the ability to plan, select and execute an action based on the current situation and the knowledge possessed (Williams & Ford, 2013)

Question 55

Contextual information

Answer 55

The circumstances which form the setting for an event, statement or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood
Canal-Bruland and Man (2015) argued that when researching anticipation and other perceptual-cognitive skills, greater attention must be given to the role of probabilistic or contextual information

Question 56

Measuring perceptual cognitive skills

Answer 56

Response accuracy (did participants select correct decision or anticipate correctly)
Response time (how quick a decision was made or how early could the participants anticipate)
Performance in situ (number of saves, number of bat ball contacts)
Gaze behaviour (number of fixations, fixation during, percent vowing time)
Verbal reports (what did skilled/less skilled say during/after test)

Question 57

Temporal occlusion paradigm

Answer 57

Pausing or stopping video clips at different temporal points
Occlusion goggles can be used to remove visual information at key time points
Assumption: Time point at which performance alters markedly between skilled and less skilled is the point at which the most information emerges

Question 58

Spatial Occlusion

Answer 58

Assumption: Kinematic info at which performance alters markedly between skilled and less skilled is the part of the body at which the most information emerges

Only looking at certain parts of the body eg hip

Question 59

Why train vision

Answer 59

The time it takes for a pitched ball to reach the plate in baseball is approximately 0.4 seconds.

In that time the batter needs to spot the pitch, assess rotation and direction of the ball to finally make a decision to swing or not

The swing takes approximately 0.23 seconds

Therefore, there remains only about 0.17 seconds to decide to swing

Ability to use vision to guide effective decision-making…

Question 60

Visual “Hardware” and Visual “Software

Answer 60

Using a computer analogy, the eyes and visual pathways can be considered as the ‘hardware’ (i.e. natural visual ability)

The perceptual components of performance, including the ability to read the play and anticipate the actions of other competitors, considered as the visual ‘software’ (Mann et al., 2005)

We will look at training interventions focusing on visual ‘hardware’ in this mini-lecture and then look at sport-specific training for visual ‘software’

Question 61

Generalised vision training

Basic premise:

Answer 61

Basic visual functions (e.g., dynamic visual acuity, peripheral vision) underpin success in fast-paced dynamic and interactive sports

From this premise it is argued that improving basic visual functions via general vision training automatically leads to improved performance in these sports.

Question 62

What is involved in generalised vision training?

Answer 62

Dynavision
Tachistoscope
Brock string
Eye port
Rotary
Strobe glasses

Question 63

Fixation

Answer 63

Fixation = Typically defined in sport science as maintaining visual gaze on same location for at least 100 ms (e.g. Williams et al., 1999) or 120 ms (e.g. Runswick et al., 2017)

Question 64

Fixation duration

Answer 64

Fixation duration = Length of fixation (e.g. ms or number of frames). The longer the eye remains fixated on a given target, the more information is thought to be extracted from the display (Mann et al., 2007)

Question 65

Number of fixations/fixation order

Answer 65

Number of fixations/fixation order = Which stimuli in the display do the performers fixate on, and in what order?

Question 66

Saccade

Answer 66

Saccade = Eye movements between fixations – may suppress information processing

Question 67

Visual Search Patterns of Experts

Answer 67

Experts typically use fewer fixations of longer durations
Fixating on the opponent, rather than the ball in earlier action sequences in tennis and football (Mann et al., 2019)
Elite performers have a longer duration of final fixation on the target in closed skills (e.g. Quiet Eye, Vickers; 1996)
However, sports expertise effects does not result in basic visual attention tasks (Memmert et al., 2009) – similar result for sport-specific vs general pattern recognition (North & Williams, 2019)

Question 68

Visual Search Patterns of Novices

Answer 68

Typically involves more fixations of less duration, with more saccades which suppresses information processing
Novices can also fixate on irrelevant stimuli due to a lack of practice or instruction in attending to relevant stimuli, or attuning to affordances
Novices make less use of peripheral vision
Typically focusing on the ball, rather than “predictive saccades” used by experts

Question 69

Visual Exploratory Activity (VEA)

Answer 69

VEA in football is defined as “movements of the body or head that are directed away from the ball” (Jordet, 2005)
An analysis of Premier League midfielders showed that players with highest pass % explored more frequently (Jordet et al., 2013)
Ever changing environmental cues = changes in affordances for players (Pocock et al., 2019)

Question 70

Anticipation

Answer 70

Anticipation can be defined as the ability to predict an opponent’s action to allow sufficient time with which to produce an appropriate response (Broadbent, Causer, Williams, & Ford, 2014)

Question 71

Decision-making

Answer 71

Decision-making is the ability to plan, select and execute an action based on the current situation and the knowledge possessed (Williams & Ford, 2013)

Question 72

Training Perceptual Skill

Answer 72

Step 1: Assess initial performance using a pre-test
Step 2: Critical perceptual information/postural information is highlighted in intervention training
Step 3: Re-assess performance using a post-test (same as pre-test)
Step 4: Re-assess performance using a retention/transfer test

Compare to a control/placebo group to see if training intervention had an effect

Question 73

Training Perceptual Skill: Key issues

Answer 73

How to provide training instructions for an intervention?

Video based training or in situ training?

How to control the study to measure intervention effects?

How long/frequent should the intervention be?

Question 74

Measuring decision making

Answer 74

Typically rated by coaches (e.g. on a subjective scale of 1-7, Pocock et al., 2019)
When using video clips, typically rated as the “best decision” if selecting the option that led to a successful goal/basket etc.
Can measure decision accuracy if there is a clear choice for “best decision” pre-determined by coaches or independent observers
Can also measure decision time
Can be subjective at times, so needs to be justified based on previous research when designing methods to train decision-making