Cognitive Psychology For Sports Performance Flashcards
What is performance
The behavioural act of executing a skill at a specific time and in a specific situation
Performance is temporary
What is learning
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
What is deliberate practice
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)
Self-Regulation
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
Zimmerman’s three phases of self-regualtion
Performance phase
(Record performance)
Forethought phase Self-reflection phase
(Set process goals) (Attribution error)
Singer (1988) Five Step Approach
For self-paced (closed) motor tasks
- Ready - physical, emotional, psychological - aware of breathing environment thoughts
- Image - visual & Kinaesthetic - may include self-talk - increases awareness of instructions, task demands and own movement
- Focus - concentrate intensely on one relevant feature of the situation eg Seams of tennis ball
- Execute - perform without thinking of movement of the outcome
- Evaluate - effectiveness of the movement and the effectiveness of each of the five steps
Cognitive effort
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
Blocked vs random practice (contextual interference
Blocked practice eg AAABBBCCC
LOW contextual interference
Random practice eg ABCABCABC
HIGH contextual interference
Contextual interference effect
Performing multiple skills in a random order disrupts performance but may benefit learning
Supported by Shea & Morgan (1979)
Explains CI effect: Elaboration Hypothesis
Shea & Morgan (1979)
Memories for movement (or motor programs) exist in a long term memory, and are recalled every time we perform an action
Predictions of Elaborative Hypothesis
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
Evidence for elaboration
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)
Action Plan Reconstruction
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)
Challenge point framework
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
What did Schmidt & Wrisberg (2004) say (CI)
Repetitions are essential for learning, repetitiveness is not
Wulf et al. (1998)
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
Internal vs external focus
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
Constrained action hypothesis
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
What can conscious control cause
‘Paralysis by analysis’
Distance effects
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
Distance and expertise
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
Vallacher (1993)
Control over movements and actions is represented hierarchically
As we become more skilled the action becomes controlled at progressively higher levels
Proximal vs Distal Foci
Distal external (ball path) focus shown to be more effective in golf putting than proximal external (club focus) in golf putting (Kearney, 2014)
Knowledge & Learning
Knowledge about motor skills exists in two forms: Declarative Knowledge & Procedural Knowledge
Learning may be explicit or implicit
Declarative Knowledge
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)
Procedural Knowledge
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
Explicit learning
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)
Knowledge complication
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
Choking under pressure
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
Reinvestment theory
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)
Masters solution to learning
If no (minimal) declarative knowledge is ever formed .. then no reinvestment can occur
Two visual systems
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
Neurological dissociation
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)
The anatomy of two visual systems
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
Accordances
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
Implicit learning
Learning without forming explicit technical rules
Prevents athletes from reinvesting declarative knowledge in high pressure situations
Implicit learning via dual tasks
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
Analogy learning
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
Cookie jar Analogy
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)
Benefits of analogy learning
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
Ecological dynamics and instruction
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
Ecological Dynamics
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)
Meta-Stability (Hristovski et al., 2006)
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)
Representative learning design (Pinder et al., 2011)
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
What does functionality and action fidelity mean (Brunswick, 1956)
Functionality: Cues should be sampled from the organism’s typical environment
Action fidelity: How similar is the movement
Ball projection machines vs live bowler
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
Affective learning design (Headrick et al., 2015)
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
Influence of contextual factors (Pocock et al., 2018)
Place kickers that has missed their previous kick were 7% less successful than kickers that had scored previous kick in 2015 RWC
Limitations of representative design
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
Constraints led approach
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
Newell’s model of Constraints (1986)
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
Perceptual-Cognitive Skills
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
Perceptual-Cognitive skills in sport
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)
Anticipation and decision making
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)
Contextual information
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
Measuring perceptual cognitive skills
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)
Temporal occlusion paradigm
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
Spatial Occlusion
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
Why train vision
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…
Visual “Hardware” and Visual “Software
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’
Generalised vision training
Basic premise:
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.
What is involved in generalised vision training?
Dynavision Tachistoscope Brock string Eye port Rotary Strobe glasses
Fixation
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)
Fixation duration
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)
Number of fixations/fixation order
Number of fixations/fixation order = Which stimuli in the display do the performers fixate on, and in what order?
Saccade
Saccade = Eye movements between fixations – may suppress information processing
Visual Search Patterns of Experts
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)
Visual Search Patterns of Novices
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
Visual Exploratory Activity (VEA)
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)
Anticipation
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)
Decision-making
Decision-making is the ability to plan, select and execute an action based on the current situation and the knowledge possessed (Williams & Ford, 2013)
Training Perceptual Skill
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
Training Perceptual Skill: Key issues
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?
Measuring decision making
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
