Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study was conducted to disentangle the relative impact of visual and motor experience on the processing of the head fake in basketball. In a pre-test-intervention-post-test study, we investigated if the head-fake effect can be reduced with either a one-week visual-training intervention (visual-training group: N = 17, 10 females, 7 males, mean age = 21.2 years) or with a one-week motor-training intervention (motor-training group: N = 17, 10 females, 7 males, mean age = 20.9 years). Additionally, a waiting-control group (N = 17, 8 females, 9 males, mean age = 23.1 years) without any intervention and a group of experienced basketball players (N = 21, 9 females, 12 males, mean age = 23.9) was tested in the pre-post-test design (i.e., without intervention). The size of the head-fake effect was measured in a laboratory setting with a reaction time experiment, in which participants had to classify the pass direction of a faking or non-faking basketball player, who was shown in a video on a screen wall. The study revealed that the head-fake effect decreased after the training interventions. Surprisingly, the waiting-control group showed similar improvements. Thus, the reduced head-fake effect appears to be based on test-repetition effects. Moreover, after a single test session the head-fake effect approached a level that experts displayed from the outset. Even a small amount of practice (i.e., test-repetition) is sufficient to reduce, though not to abolish, the head-fake effect. We discuss this finding with regard to the common-coding approach and working memory capacity.

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