An Augmented Perceptual-Cognitive Intervention Using a Pattern Recall Paradigm With Junior Soccer Players.

In sport, perceptual skill training software is intended to assist tactical training in the field. The aim of this field study was to test whether "laboratory-based" pattern recall training would augment tactical skill training performed on the field. Twenty-six soccer players between 14 and 16 years of age from a single team participated in this study and were divided into three groups. The first received field training on a specific tactical skill plus cognitive training sessions on the pattern recall task. The second performed only the field training while the third group served as a control group and had field training on other topics. The task on the pre-, post-, and retention-tests was to recall specific soccer patterns displayed on a computer screen. Results showed significant changes between pre- and post-test performance. There was no significant interaction between groups and tests but the effect size was large. From pre- to retention-test, there was a significant difference between tests and an interaction between groups and tests, but no main effect difference between groups. On the basis of significance testing only retention was affected by the additional training, however, descriptive results and effect sizes from pre- to post-test were as expected and suggested there were learning benefits. Together these results indicate that augmented perceptual-cognitive training might be beneficial, but some limitations in our study design (e.g., missing field test, missing placebo group, etc.) need to be improved in future work.

Long-Term Prognostic Validity of Talent Selections: Comparing National and Regional Coaches, Laypersons and Novices.

In most sports, the development of elite athletes is a long-term process of talent identification and support. Typically, talent selection systems administer a multi-faceted strategy including national coach observations and varying physical and psychological tests when deciding who is chosen for talent development. The aim of this exploratory study was to evaluate the prognostic validity of talent selections by varying groups 10 years after they had been conducted. This study used a unique, multi-phased approach. Phase 1 involved players (n = 68) in 2001 completing a battery of general and sport-specific tests of handball 'talent' and performance. In Phase 2, national and regional coaches (n = 7) in 2001 who attended training camps identified the most talented players. In Phase 3, current novice and advanced handball players (n = 12 in each group) selected the most talented from short videos of matches played during the talent camp. Analyses compared predictions among all groups with a best model-fit derived from the motor tests. Results revealed little difference between regional and national coaches in the prediction of future performance and little difference in forecasting performance between novices and players. The best model-fit regression by the motor-tests outperformed all predictions. While several limitations are discussed, this study is a useful starting point for future investigations considering athlete selection decisions in talent identification in sport.

Perceptual-cognitive expertise of handball coaches in their young and middle adult years.

There is little research investigating the maintenance of perceptual-cognitive expertise in general and even less comparing coaches of different ages. The aim of this study was to test for perceptual-cognitive differences between age groups, licence levels, and their interaction. This study investigated differences in skilled performance between young and middle-aged coaches of three different skill levels. Participants performed an accuracy-oriented pattern recall (mean distance in pixel) and a time-oriented flicker test (mean detection time in ms). There were some significant differences between age groups and between skill groups for both tests, but no interactions. For the pattern recall test, the effect sizes were larger for skill level differences, while for the flicker test effects were larger for ageing. These results suggest coaches are able to maintain accuracy skills better than reaction timed tasks. This is in line with findings on speeded performance in general populations, which show declines with age. Moreover, results also support findings on perceptual expertise in skills where accuracy was important.

Retention of quiet eye in older skilled basketball players.

There is mounting research to suggest that cognitive and motor expertise is more resistant to age-related decline than more general capacities. The authors investigated the retention of skills in medium-aged skilled (n = 14) and older-aged skilled (n = 7) athletes by comparing them with medium-aged less skilled (n = 15) and older-aged less skilled (n = 15) participants. Participants performed basketball free throws and dart throws as a transfer task under standardized conditions. Motor performance (accuracy) and perceptual performance (quiet eye) were examined across the four groups. There were significant differences between skill groups and age groups in throwing accuracy on both throwing tasks. Skilled players outperformed less skilled and medium-aged players outperformed older-aged players in basketball and dart throws. There were no significant differences in quiet eye duration across the skill or age groups in either task. These results indicate expertise in a perceptual motor task such as the basketball free throw can be retained in older athletes and that present models of skill maintenance should be re-evaluated to consider the issue of transfer.

Transfer of motor and perceptual skills from basketball to darts.

The quiet eye is a perceptual skill associated with expertise and superior performance; however, little is known about the transfer of quiet eye across domains. We attempted to replicate previous skill-based differences in quiet eye and investigated whether transfer of motor and perceptual skills occurs between similar tasks. Throwing accuracy and quiet eye duration for skilled and less-skilled basketball players were examined in basketball free throw shooting and the transfer task of dart throwing. Skilled basketball players showed significantly higher throwing accuracy and longer quiet eye duration in the basketball free throw task compared to their less-skilled counterparts. Further, skilled basketball players showed positive transfer from basketball to dart throwing in accuracy but not in quiet eye duration. Our results raise interesting questions regarding the measurement of transfer between skills.

Foveal and peripheral fields of vision influences perceptual skill in anticipating opponents' attacking position in volleyball.

The importance of perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport has been repeatedly demonstrated. In this study we examined the role of different sources of visual information (i.e., foveal versus peripheral) in anticipating volleyball attack positions. Expert (n = 11), advanced (n = 13) and novice (n = 16) players completed an anticipation task that involved predicting the location of volleyball attacks. Video clips of volleyball attacks (n = 72) were spatially and temporally occluded to provide varying amounts of information to the participant. In addition, participants viewed the attacks under three visual conditions: full vision, foveal vision only, and peripheral vision only. Analysis of variance revealed significant between group differences in prediction accuracy with higher skilled players performing better than lower skilled players. Additionally, we found significant differences between temporal and spatial occlusion conditions. Both of those factors interacted separately, but not combined with expertise. Importantly, for experts the sum of both fields of vision was superior to either source in isolation. Our results suggest different sources of visual information work collectively to facilitate expert anticipation in time-constrained sports and reinforce the complexity of expert perception.

Observational training in visual half-fields and the coding of movement sequences.

An experiment was conducted to determine if gating information to different hemispheres during observational training facilitates the development of a movement representation. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three observation groups that differed in terms of the type of visual half-field presentation during observation (right visual half-field (RVF), left visual half-field (LVF), or in central position (CE)), and a control group (CG). On Day 1, visual stimuli indicating the pattern of movement to be produced were projected on the respective hemisphere. The task participants observed was a 1300 ms spatial-temporal pattern of elbow flexions and extensions. On Day 2, participants physically performed the task in an inter-manual transfer paradigm with a retention test, and two contralateral transfer tests; a mirror transfer test which required the same pattern of muscle activation and limb joint angles and a non-mirror transfer test which reinstated the visual-spatial pattern of the sequence. The results demonstrated that participants of the CE, RVF and the LVF groups showed superior retention and transfer performance compared to participants of the CG. Participants of the CE- and LVF-groups demonstrated an advantage when the visual-spatial coordinates were reinstated compared to the motor coordinates, while participants of the RVF-group did not promote specific transfer patterns. These results will be discussed in the context of hemisphere specialization.

Field of vision influences sensory-motor control of skilled and less-skilled dart players.

One characteristic of perceptual expertise in sport and other domains is known as 'the quiet eye', which assumes that fixated information is processed during gaze stability and insufficient spatial information leads to a decrease in performance. The aims of this study were a) replicating inter- and intra-group variability and b) investigating the extent to which quiet eye supports information pick-up of varying fields of vision (i.e., central versus peripheral) using a specific eye-tracking paradigm to compare different skill levels in a dart throwing task. Differences between skill levels were replicated at baseline, but no significant differences in throwing performance were revealed among the visual occlusion conditions. Findings are generally in line with the association between quiet eye duration and aiming performance, but raise questions regarding the relevance of central vision information pick-up for the quiet eye. Key pointsInvestigation of throwing performance and quiet eye duration in dart throwing under several vision conditionsFirst investigation using a dynamic occlusion paradigm, manipulating field of vision in situReplication of previous findings concerning throwing performance and quiet eye durationNew insights about the role of central (and peripheral) vision concerning the quiet eye phenomena.