An examination of perceptual-motor recalibration in a 1-vs-1 anticipation test.

This study examined the processes of perceptual-motor calibration/recalibration of defensive football players in a 1-vs-1 scenario. Ankle weights were used to reduce the acceleration capabilities of players performing an anticipation test, with the aim being to examine the player's response to the disturbance in terms of when movement was initiated and the impact on the mechanisms that underpinned anticipation, namely gaze behaviour. The ankle weights disturbed the perceptual-motor system and players initiated movement significantly earlier in the 1-vs-1 anticipation test. Analyses of perceptual-motor calibration/recalibration revealed that players acted closer to their maximal action capabilities prior to the addition of ankle weights, which negatively influenced the scaling of action capabilities. Moreover, players were unable to recalibrate whilst wearing ankle weights. However, following the withdrawal of the ankle weights, players were able to recalibrate within 11-15 trials. Players did not adapt gaze behaviour as a result of the disturbance being placed on the perceptual-motor system, but task familiarization resulted in more efficient eye movements. The results of this study show the importance of providing players the opportunity to "scale" action to perceptual information.

Understanding a Player's Decision-Making Process in Team Sports: A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence.

Three perspectives were taken to explain decision-making within team sports (information processing, recognition primed decision-making, and ecological dynamics perspectives), resulting in conceptual tension and practical confusion. The aim of this paper was to interrogate empirical evidence to (1) understand the process of decision-making within team sports and (2) capture the characteristics of decision-making expertise in a team sport context. Nine electronic databases (SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO, PsycArticles, PsycTests, PubMed, SAGE journals online, Web of Knowledge, Academic Search Complete, and Web of Science) were searched until the final return in March 2021. Fifty-three articles satisfied the inclusion criteria, were analysed thematically, and synthesised using a narrative approach. Findings indicate that the relative absence or presence of mental representation within the decision-making process depends on factors, including complexity, typicality, time available, and contextual priors available in the game situation. We recommend that future research integrate concepts and methodologies prevalent within each perspective to better understand decision-making within team sports before providing implications for practitioners.

What Cognitive Mechanism, When, Where, and Why? Exploring the Decision Making of University and Professional Rugby Union Players During Competitive Matches.

Over the past 50 years decision making research in team invasion sport has been dominated by three research perspectives, information processing, ecological dynamics, and naturalistic decision making. Recently, attempts have been made to integrate perspectives, as conceptual similarities demonstrate the decision making process as an interaction between a players perception of game information and the individual and collective capability to act on it. Despite this, no common ground has been found regarding what connects perception and action during performance. The differences between perspectives rest on the role of stored mental representations, that may, or may not facilitate the retrieval of appropriate responses in time pressured competitive environments. Additionally, in team invasion sports like rugby union, the time available to players to perceive, access memory and act, alters rapidly between specific game situations. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine theoretical differences and the mechanisms that underpin them, through the vehicle of rugby union. Sixteen semi-elite rugby union players took part in two post-game procedures to explore the following research objectives; (i) to consider how game situations influence players perception of information; (ii) to consider how game situations influence the application of cognitive mechanisms whilst making decisions; and (iii) to identify the influence of tactics and/or strategy on player decision making. Deductive content analysis and elementary units of meaning derived from self-confrontation elicitation interviews indicate that specific game situations such as; the lineout, scrum or open phases of play or the tackle situation in attack or defence all provide players with varying complexity of perceptual information, formed through game information and time available to make decisions. As time increased, players were more likely to engage with task-specific declarative knowledge-of the game, stored as mental representations. As time diminished, players tended to diagnose and update their knowledge-in the game in a rapid fashion. Occasionally, when players described having no time, they verbalised reacting on instinct through a direct connection between perception and action. From these findings, clear practical implications and directions for future research and dissemination are discussed.

Examining the effect of reduced action capabilities on defensive anticipation in a 1-vs-1 task.

This study used small-sided games (SSGs) to induce fatigue and therefore, reduce the action capabilities of Varsity soccer players (n= 20). The aim was to examine the effect of compromised action capabilities on defensive movement response in a 1-vs-1 scenario. Action capabilities were assessed via countermovement jumps (CMJ), 5-m acceleration, 20-m sprint and a Change of Direction (COD) test. Defensive movement response was measured via a Soccer-Specific Anticipation Test (SSAT). Following SSGs, significant reductions were observed in jump (p=.04, d=.31), acceleration (p<.001, d=.98), and sprint (p<.001, d=.66) performance. Significantly, players tended to move earlier in the SSAT following SSGs (p=.049, d=.66). Furthermore, to examine the distinct effect of reductions in each action capability, players were categorised according to whether SSGs had a worthwhile change in CMJ, acceleration, sprint or COD performance. For each of the four measures, movements tended to be initiated earlier following SSGs, although pre-/post-SSGs differences were not significant (p =.08-.51), moderate to large effect sizes were shown (d=.56-.84). These findings intimate that compromised action capabilities influence the timing of the movement response of defensive players in 1-vs-1 situations.

The combination of physical and mental load exacerbates the negative effect of each on the capability of skilled soccer players to anticipate action.

This study examined the impact of combining physical and mental load on the anticipatory judgements of skilled soccer players. Sixteen players completed an 11vs11 video anticipation test in four counterbalanced conditions, each separated by 7 days. The baseline condition consisted of only the anticipation test. A physical load condition required participants to complete a simulated soccer protocol on a treadmill followed by the anticipation test. A mental load condition required participants to complete a 30-min Stroop test followed by the anticipation test. Finally, in the combined load condition, participants completed the physical load protocol alongside the mentally loading Stroop task followed by the anticipation test. Response accuracy, visual search behaviour and measures of effort were assessed throughout. Response accuracy decreased in the separate physical load and mental load conditions when compared to baseline and worsened further in the combined load condition. The reduction in response accuracy across experimental conditions coincided with an increase in the number of fixations when compared to the baseline condition. It is suggested that the separate sources of load impaired the players ability to allocate sufficient resources to task-relevant information leading to a reduction in anticipatory accuracy, and this was exacerbated in the combined load condition.

The impact of rule modifications on player behaviour in a talent identification and development environment: A case study of the Rugby Football Union's Wellington Academy Rugby Festival.

Research has suggested that competition within talent identification and development systems should be modified from the adult format of the sport to meet the developmental needs of those participating. Yet limited research has evaluated the success of game changes, particularly the effectiveness of modifying the rules of a game to purposefully engineer changes in player behaviour. The purpose of this study was to monitor the impact of rule modifications on player behaviour within a talent identification and development system in rugby union. Performance indicators (ball in play, pass, offload, kick) were collected during full length (70 min) and shortened durations (30-42 min) of competitive matches played during a weeklong under sixteen rugby union festival in 2016 and after rule modifications were introduced in 2017-2019. The findings indicate that rule modifications had the prescribed impact on player actions, particularly in the shortened duration formats of the game. Therefore, rule modifications provide talent developers a tool to manipulate player behaviour, in this case skill attempts, within full-sided competitive matches.

The role of conscious processing of movements during balance by young and older adults.

We examined the effect of verbalization of a phylogenetic motor skill, balance, in older and young adults with a low or a high propensity for conscious verbal engagement in their movements (reinvestment). Seventy-seven older adults and 53 young adults were categorized as high or low reinvestors, using the Movement Specific Reinvestment Scale, which assesses propensity for conscious processing of movements. Participants performed a pre- and post-test balance task that required quiet standing on a force-measuring plate. Prior to the post-test, participants described their pre-test balancing performance (verbalization) or listed animals (non-verbalization). Only young adults were affected by verbalization, with participants with a high propensity for reinvestment displaying increased medial-lateral entropy and participants with a low propensity for reinvestment displaying increased area of sway and medial-lateral sway variability following the intervention. The possible explanations for these results are discussed.

Perceptual Modification of the Built Environment to Influence Behavior Associated with Physical Activity: Quasi-Experimental Field Studies of a Stair Banister Illusion.

BACKGROUND: Re-engineering the built environment to influence behaviors associated with physical activity potentially provides an opportunity to promote healthier lifestyles at a population level. Here we present evidence from two quasi-experimental field studies in which we tested a novel, yet deceptively simple, intervention designed to alter perception of, and walking behavior associated with, stairs in an urban area. OBJECTIVES: Our objectives were to examine whether adjusting a stair banister has an influence on perceptions of stair steepness or on walking behavior when approaching the stairs. METHODS: In study 1, we asked participants (n = 143) to visually estimate the steepness of a set of stairs viewed from the top, when the stair banister was adjusted so that it converged with or diverged from the stairs (± 1.91°) or remained neutral (± 0°). In study 2, the walking behavior of participants (n = 36) was filmed as they approached the stairs to descend, unaware of whether the banister converged, diverged, or was neutral. RESULTS: In study 1, participants estimated the stairs to be steeper if the banister diverged from, rather than converged with, the stairs. The effect was greater when participants were unaware of the adjustment. In study 2, walking speed was significantly slower when the banister diverged from, rather than converged with, the stairs. CONCLUSIONS: These findings encourage us to speculate about the potential to economically re-engineer features of the built environment to provide opportunities for action (affordances) that invite physical activity behavior or even promote safer navigation of the environment.

Conscious Control Is Associated With Freezing of Mechanical Degrees of Freedom During Motor Learning.

This study investigated whether conscious control is associated with freezing of mechanical degrees of freedom during motor learning. Participants practiced a throwing task using either error-strewn or error-reduced practice protocols, which encourage high or low levels of conscious control, respectively. After 24 hr, participants engaged in a series of delayed retention and transfer tests. Furthermore, propensity for conscious control was assessed using participants' ratings and freezing was gauged through movement variability of the throwing arm. Performance was defined by mean radial error. In the error-strewn group, propensity for conscious control was positively associated with both freezing and performance. In the error-reduced group, propensity for conscious control was negatively associated with performance, but not with freezing. These results suggest that conscious control is associated with freezing of mechanical degrees of freedom during motor learning.

Getting to the Root of Fine Motor Skill Performance in Dentistry: Brain Activity During Dental Tasks in a Virtual Reality Haptic Simulation.

BACKGROUND: There is little evidence considering the relationship between movement-specific reinvestment (a dimension of personality which refers to the propensity for individuals to consciously monitor and control their movements) and working memory during motor skill performance. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measuring oxyhemoglobin demands in the frontal cortex during performance of virtual reality (VR) psychomotor tasks can be used to examine this research gap. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the potential relationship between the propensity to reinvest and blood flow to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortices of the brain. A secondary aim was to determine the propensity to reinvest and performance during 2 dental tasks carried out using haptic VR simulators. METHODS: We used fNIRS to assess oxygen demands in 24 undergraduate dental students during 2 dental tasks (clinical, nonclinical) on a VR haptic simulator. We used the Movement-Specific Reinvestment Scale questionnaire to assess the students' propensity to reinvest. RESULTS: Students with a high propensity for movement-specific reinvestment displayed significantly greater oxyhemoglobin demands in an area associated with working memory during the nonclinical task (Spearman correlation, rs=.49, P=.03). CONCLUSIONS: This small-scale study suggests that neurophysiological differences are evident between high and low reinvesters during a dental VR task in terms of oxyhemoglobin demands in an area associated with working memory.

Movement pattern components and mastery of an object control skill with error-reduced learning.

OBJECTIVES: This paper reports the effects of error-reduced learning on movement components and mastery of overhand throwing in children with and without intellectual disability. METHODS: Secondary data analysis was performed on two samples of children (typically developing, TD; intellectual disability, ID) who practiced overhand throwing in either an error-reduced (ER) or error-strewn (ES) condition. Movement pattern components were assessed using a sub-skill of Test of Gross Motor Development-2. RESULTS: In TD participants, ER learners displayed improved follow-through while ES learners did not. Among children with ID, ER learners displayed greater improvements of hip/shoulder rotation and follow-through, than ES learners. Discriminant function analysis confirmed that changes in these components differentiated learning groups. Greater percentage of ER, compared to ES, participants progressed to mastery. CONCLUSIONS: With suppressed errors, the follow-through component of overhand throwing is likely to emerge, particularly in children with inferior abilities, and cognitive limitations. Error-reduced learning facilitates mastery.

Multitask training promotes automaticity of a fundamental laparoscopic skill without compromising the rate of skill learning.

BACKGROUND: A defining characteristic of expertise is automated performance of skills, which frees attentional capacity to better cope with some common intraoperative stressors. There is a paucity of research on how best to foster automated performance by surgical trainees. This study examined the use of a multitask training approach to promote automated, robust laparoscopic skills. METHODS: Eighty-one medical students completed training of a fundamental laparoscopic task in either a traditional single-task training condition or a novel multitask training condition. Following training, participants' laparoscopic performance was tested in a retention test, two stress transfer tests (distraction and time pressure) and a secondary task test, which was included to evaluate automaticity of performance. The laparoscopic task was also performed as part of a formal clinical examination (OSCE). RESULTS: The training groups did not differ in the number of trials required to reach task proficiency (p = .72), retention of skill (ps > .45), or performance in the clinical examination (p = .14); however, the groups did differ with respect to the secondary task (p = .016). The movement efficiency (number of hand movements) of single-task trainees, but not multitask trainees, was negatively affected during the secondary task test. The two stress transfer tests had no discernable impact on the performance of either training group. CONCLUSION: Multitask training was not detrimental to the rate of learning of a fundamental laparoscopic skill and added value by providing resilience in the face of a secondary task load, indicative of skill automaticity. Further work is needed to determine the extent of the clinical utility afforded by multitask training.

Gaze-contingent training enhances perceptual skill acquisition.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether decision-making skill in perceptual-cognitive tasks could be enhanced using a training technique that impaired selective areas of the visual field. Recreational basketball players performed perceptual training over 3 days while viewing with a gaze-contingent manipulation that displayed either (a) a moving window (clear central and blurred peripheral vision), (b) a moving mask (blurred central and clear peripheral vision), or (c) full (unrestricted) vision. During the training, participants watched video clips of basketball play and at the conclusion of each clip made a decision about to which teammate the player in possession of the ball should pass. A further control group watched unrelated videos with full vision. The effects of training were assessed using separate tests of decision-making skill conducted in a pretest, posttest, and 2-week retention test. The accuracy of decision making was greater in the posttest than in the pretest for all three intervention groups when compared with the control group. Remarkably, training with blurred peripheral vision resulted in a further improvement in performance from posttest to retention test that was not apparent for the other groups. The type of training had no measurable impact on the visual search strategies of the participants, and so the training improvements appear to be grounded in changes in information pickup. The findings show that learning with impaired peripheral vision offers a promising form of training to support improvements in perceptual skill.

Examining Movement-Specific Reinvestment and Performance in Demanding Contexts.

Two experiments examined the roles of the dimensions of movement-specific reinvestment (movement self-consciousness and conscious motor processing) on performance under demanding conditions. In Experiment 1, novice golfers practiced a golf putting task and were tested under low- and high-anxiety conditions. Conscious motor processing was not associated with putting proficiency or movement variability; however, movement self-consciousness was positively associated with putting proficiency and appeared to be negatively associated with variability of impact velocity in low-anxiety conditions, but not in high-anxiety conditions. Increased anxiety and effort possibly left few attention resources for movement self-consciousness under high anxiety. In Experiment 2, participants performed a quiet standing task in single- and dual-task conditions. Movement self-consciousness was positively associated with performance when attention demands were low (single task) but not when attention demands were high (dual task). The findings provide insight into the differential influence of the two dimensions of movement-specific reinvestment under demanding conditions.

Exploring personality dimensions that influence practice and performance of a simulated laparoscopic task in the objective structured clinical examination.

BACKGROUND: Surgical educators have encouraged the investigation of individual differences in aptitude and personality in surgical performance. An individual personality difference that has been shown to influence laparoscopic performance under time pressure is movement specific reinvestment. Movement specific reinvestment has 2 dimensions, movement self-consciousness (MS-C) (i.e., the propensity to consciously monitor movements) and conscious motor processing (CMP) (i.e., the propensity to consciously control movements), which have been shown to differentially influence laparoscopic performance in practice but have yet to be investigated in the context of psychological stress (e.g., the objective structured clinical examination [OSCE]). OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the role of individual differences in propensity for MS-C and CMP in practice of a fundamental laparoscopic skill and in laparoscopic performance during the OSCE. Furthermore, this study examined whether individual differences during practice of a fundamental laparoscopic skill were predictive of laparoscopic performance during the OSCE. METHODS: Overall, 77 final-year undergraduate medical students completed the movement specific reinvestment scale, an assessment tool that quantifies the propensity for MS-C and CMP. Participants were trained to proficiency on a fundamental laparoscopic skill. The number of trials to reach proficiency was measured, and completion times were recorded during early practice, later practice, and the OSCE. RESULTS: There was a trend for CMP to be negatively associated with the number of trials to reach proficiency (p = 0.064). A higher propensity for CMP was associated with fewer trials to reach proficiency (ß = -0.70, p = 0.023). CMP and MS-C did not significantly predict completion times in the OSCE (p > 0.05). Completion times in early practice (ß = 0.05, p = 0.016) and later practice (ß = 0.47, p < 0.001) and number of trials to reach proficiency (ß = 0.23, p = 0.003) significantly predicted completion times in the OSCE. CONCLUSION: It appears that a higher propensity for CMP predicts faster rates of learning of a fundamental laparoscopic skill. Furthermore, laparoscopic performance during practice is indicative of laparoscopic performance in the challenging conditions of the OSCE. The lack of association between the 2 dimensions of movement specific reinvestment and performance during the OSCE is explained using the theory of reinvestment as a framework. Overall, consideration of personality differences and individual differences in ability during practice could help inform the development of individualized surgical training programs.

Cathodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Over Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Area Promotes Implicit Motor Learning in a Golf Putting Task.

BACKGROUND: Implicit motor learning is characterized by low dependence on working memory and stable performance despite stress, fatigue, or multi-tasking. However, current paradigms for implicit motor learning are based on behavioral interventions that are often task-specific and limited when applied in practice. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) area during motor learning suppressed working memory activity and reduced explicit verbal-analytical involvement in movement control, thereby promoting implicit motor learning. METHODS: Twenty-seven healthy individuals practiced a golf putting task during a Training Phase while receiving either real cathodal tDCS stimulation over the left DLPFC area or sham stimulation. Their performance was assessed during a Test phase on another day. Verbal working memory capacity was assessed before and after the Training Phase, and before the Test Phase. RESULTS: Compared to sham stimulation, real stimulation suppressed verbal working memory activity after the Training Phase, but enhanced golf putting performance during the Training Phase and the Test Phase, especially when participants were required to multi-task. CONCLUSION: Cathodal tDCS over the left DLPFC may foster implicit motor learning and performance in complex real-life motor tasks that occur during sports, surgery or motor rehabilitation.

The contributions of central and peripheral vision to expertise in basketball: How blur helps to provide a clearer picture.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the relative roles of central and peripheral vision when performing a dynamic forced-choice task. We did so by using a gaze-contingent display with different levels of blur in an effort to (a) test the limit of visual resolution necessary for information pick-up in each of these sectors of the visual field and, as a result, to (b) develop a more natural means of gaze-contingent display using a blurred central or peripheral visual field. The expert advantage seen in usual whole field visual presentation persists despite surprisingly high levels of impairment to central or peripheral vision. Consistent with the well-established central/peripheral differences in sensitivity to spatial frequency, high levels of blur did not prevent better-than-chance performance by skilled players when peripheral information was blurred, but they did affect response accuracy when impairing central vision. Blur was found to always alter the pattern of eye movements before it decreased task performance. The evidence accumulated across the 4 experiments provides new insights into several key questions surrounding the role that different sectors of the visual field play in expertise in dynamic, time-constrained tasks.

Conscious motor processing and movement self-consciousness: two dimensions of personality that influence laparoscopic training.

BACKGROUND: Identifying personality factors that account for individual differences in surgical training and performance has practical implications for surgical education. Movement-specific reinvestment is a potentially relevant personality factor that has a moderating effect on laparoscopic performance under time pressure. Movement-specific reinvestment has 2 dimensions, which represent an individual's propensity to consciously control movements (conscious motor processing) or to consciously monitor their 'style' of movement (movement self-consciousness). OBJECTIVE: This study aimed at investigating the moderating effects of the 2 dimensions of movement-specific reinvestment in the learning and updating (cross-handed technique) of laparoscopic skills. METHODS: Medical students completed the Movement-Specific Reinvestment Scale, a psychometric assessment tool that evaluates the conscious motor processing and movement self-consciousness dimensions of movement-specific reinvestment. They were then trained to a criterion level of proficiency on a fundamental laparoscopic skills task and were tested on a novel cross-handed technique. Completion times were recorded for early-learning, late-learning, and cross-handed trials. RESULTS: Propensity for movement self-consciousness but not conscious motor processing was a significant predictor of task completion times both early (p = 0.036) and late (p = 0.002) in learning, but completion times during the cross-handed trials were predicted by the propensity for conscious motor processing (p = 0.04) rather than movement self-consciousness (p = 0.21). CONCLUSION: Higher propensity for movement self-consciousness is associated with slower performance times on novel and well-practiced laparoscopic tasks. For complex surgical techniques, however, conscious motor processing plays a more influential role in performance than movement self-consciousness. The findings imply that these 2 dimensions of movement-specific reinvestment have a differential influence in the learning and updating of laparoscopic skills.

Taking aim at the Müller-Lyer goalkeeper illusion: an illusion bias in action that originates from the target not being optically specified.

Van der Kamp and Masters (2008) reported that goalkeeper postures that mimic the Müller-Lyer (1889) illusion affect the location of handball penalty throws. In four experiments, we aimed to verify that the effects on throwing are consistent with an illusory bias (Experiments 1 and 2), and to examine how these observations can be understood in the context of Milner and Goodale's (1995, 2008) two-visual systems model (Experiments 3 and 4). Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed that the goalkeeper Müller-Lyer posture may indeed induce an illusory bias in throwing, implying that allocentric information is used in far-aiming action tasks. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the bias was not related to a participant's throwing skill. Experiment 4 suggested that an absence of visual information to instantaneously specify target location may have induced use of context-dependent allocentric information, causing the throwing bias. The results are discussed in the context of recent debates about the roles of the two-visual systems in perception and action. It is suggested that the two systems are first and foremost perceptual systems that serve the pickup of different sources of information.