Perceptual-cognitive Expertise Research Articles

Neuroimaging and perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport: A narrative review of research and future directions

Perceptual-cognitive expertise is crucial in domains that require rapid extraction of information for anticipation (e.g., sport, aviation, warfighting). Yet, published reports on the neuroscience of perceptual-cognitive expertise in such dynamic performance environments focus almost exclusively on biological motion processing (i.e., action observation network), leaving gaps in knowledge about the neural mechanisms underlying other frequently cited perceptual-cognitive skills, such as pattern recognition, the use of contextual priors, and global processing. In this paper, we provide a narrative review of research on the neural mechanisms underlying perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport, a domain where individuals possess highly specialized perceptual-cognitive skills (i.e., expertise) that enable successful performance in dynamic environments. Additionally, we discuss how work from domains with more static, predictable stimuli for perception and decision-making (e.g., radiology, chess) can enhance understanding of the neuroscience of expertise in sport. In future, efforts are needed to address the neural mechanisms underpinning less studied perceptual-cognitive skills (i.e., pattern recognition, contextual priors, global processing) and to explore how experts prioritize these skills within different contexts, thereby enhancing our understanding of perceptual-cognitive expertise across numerous professional domains.

Exploring the Multidimensional Characteristics of Selected and Non-Selected White British and British South Asian Youth Cricketers: An Exploratory Machine Learning Approach

Selection into a County Age Group (CAG; under 10–18) programme is the first step for young aspiring cricketers on their journey to achieving professional status. Recognising that the British South Asian (BSA) community represents 30% of those who play recreational cricket compared to less than 5% of those who are selected to play at the professional level in England and Wales, it is important to better understand the characteristics of selected and non-selected players based on ethnicity to identify potential sociocultural differences during selection. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the multidimensional factors that differentiated between selected and non-selected adolescent male cricketers as well as between White British (WB) and BSA selected players into a CAG programme. A total of 82 male participants aged between 14 and 17 years were included (mean = 15.3 ± 1.1 years: selected n = 33 and non-selected n = 49: WB n = 34, BSA n = 44, Other n = 4). In total, 104 characteristics were measured over nine tests, which were subsequently placed into five overarching factors: (a) physiological and anthropometrical, (b) perceptual–cognitive expertise, (c) psychological, (d) participation history, and (e) socio-cultural influences. A Bayesian binomial regression was performed in rSTAN using a weak normal prior to highlight differentiators in selection as well as differences between WB and BSA selected players. The results highlighted that athleticism, wellbeing and cohesion, the number of older brothers, and being born in birth quarters two and three were positively correlated with player selection into a CAG. Conversely, increases in psychological scores, a greater number of younger brothers and older sisters, as well as antisocial behaviour resulted in a reduced chance of player selection. Finally, several developmental factors (i.e., athleticism, wellbeing and cohesion, psychological distress, and levels of anti-social behaviour) differed based on ethnicity. These exploratory findings serve as a useful opening to highlight there are important differences to consider based on selection and ethnicity in CAG cricket.

Using Biological Motion to Investigate Perceptual-Cognitive Expertise in Law Enforcement Use-of-Force Decisions.

Research focused on police officers' decision-making in ambiguous use-of-force situations has yet to investigate the role that a suspect's biological motion plays in unknown-object identification. The current study uses point-light displays to isolate the suspect's motion and remove potentially biasing information (e.g., skin tone, facial expression, clothing). Experienced law enforcement officers and trainees (n = 129) watched point-light display videos of an actor pulling either a weapon or a non-weapon from a concealed location in a threatening or non-threatening manner. After each video ended, participants indicated whether the object-which was not visible-was a weapon or a non-weapon. Results indicated that the speed and intent (e.g., threatening vs. non-threatening) with which the actor drew the object were significant predictors of officers' responses. Officers' law enforcement experience (i.e., years of service) was not a significant predictor of their response. This study has important implications for understanding why police sometimes make critical and costly errors in ambiguous use-of-force situations. We consider implications for police performance and developing improved training procedures.

A Bayesian approach to exploring expertise and putting success in adolescent and young adult golfers

ObjectivesPutting behaviour was examined to explore if age influenced performance and the development of motor and perceptual-cognitive expertise during late adolescence and early adulthood. We also examined if motor control and perceptual-cognitive expertise was related to performance on a representative putting task. MethodTwenty elite golfers (15 male; 17–24 years old; mean handicap of 0.5) completed eight straight and eight sloped putts at two distances (8ft/2.44m and 15ft/4.57m), on an indoor golf surface. Participants wore an eye tracker whilst putting and putting performance was assessed via putts holed and eye-movement behaviour, examining Quiet Eye (QE, the duration of the final fixation on the ball). A baseline profile for each participant was created using kinematic stroke data (collected using SAM PuttLab), average putts per round, greens in regulation and current practice hours (subjective self-report measures). ResultsBayesian statistical analysis revealed ‘moderate’ evidence that age and baseline kinematic factors did not influence putting success rates. Eye movement data revealed ‘moderate’ evidence that i) successful performance was associated with less variability in QE duration and ii) extended periods of QE were associated with a decline in performance. Previous experience and current skill level were ruled out as potential confounds. ConclusionOur findings reveal that performance and perceptual-cognitive expertise, did not improve with age. We suggest that post 18 years, age should not be considered a factor in talent development programmes for golf putting. We discuss the benefits of adopting a Bayesian approach and suggest future studies employ longitudinal designs to examine changes in expertise over time.

Review: The Quiet Eye in Sports Performance-Is the Quiet Eye the Ultimate Explanation or Only the Beginning?

The quiet eye is a gaze behavior that seems to differentiate both expert-novice performance and successful and unsuccessful performance in experts; however, the quiet eye may only represent one aspect of the perceptual-cognitive expertise differences that exist between athletes and nonathletes.Research suggests that expert-novice differences in vision and visual-motor coordination skills exist between athletes and nonathletes, although the underlying mechanisms driving these differences are not well understood. The quiet eye is the final fixation or tracking gaze made before the initiation of the action of importance in a motor coordination task and is quite possibly the most well-studied vision strategy variable in sport. The quiet eye has been shown to be a key component of both expert ability and successful performance. However, the quiet eye is not without its criticisms, and the perceptual mechanisms underlying this unique gaze behavior are not yet well understood. The question that remains to be answered is whether the differences in vision and visual-motor coordination skills that exist between athletes and nonathletes can be explained by the quiet eye alone or if the explanation is more complicated.

Neural correlates of cognitive processing capacity in elite soccer players

Although great progress has been made in our understanding of perceptual-cognitive expertise in team sports, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying such cognitive advantage in the face of multiple, sometimes conflicting, channels of information are not well understood. Two electroencephalographic indices associated with perceptual decisions, the P3 component of event-related potential and alpha inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC), were measured and compared across elite soccer players and non-athletic controls while performing a redundant-target task. Specifically, we adopted an effective diagnostic tool, Systems Factorial Technology, to assess participants’ workload capacity. Soccer players exhibited larger workload capacity while making faster decisions compared with controls. Moreover, this larger workload capacity was associated with modulations of P3 and alpha ITPC when processing two targets relative to one target and one distractor, an effect that was not observed in controls. Together, the present findings offer a possible mechanistic explanation of perceptual-cognitive expertise in the context of team sports.

Speed of Thought and Speed of Feet: Examining Perceptual-Cognitive Expertise and Physical Performance in an English Football Academy

The world’s greatest professional football players are able to execute effective tactical decisions as well as fulfil various physical demands. However, the degree to which both are associated with greater potential in a football academy is unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate decision-making skill and physical performance as contributing factors to coach potential rankings in an English football academy. Ninety-eight outfield academy players (Foundation Development Phase [FDP] under-9 to under-11 n = 40; Youth Development Phase [YDP] under-12 to under-16 n = 58) participated in the study. They engaged in 45 film-based simulations at two occlusion phases (e.g., the visual display is cut-off at a precise time during an action), firstly “during” and secondly “post” execution, to examine decision-making skill. Participants also completed four fitness tests to examine physical performance. A classification of “higher-potentials” (top third) and “lower-potentials” (bottom third) were applied through coach rankings. Independent t-tests compared the decision-making and physical performance tests. Higher-potentials made significantly more accurate decisions within the “post” phase within the FDP (P < 0.05) and the “during” phase within the YDP (P < 0.05). Additionally, higher-potentials were significantly faster for the 0–30 m sprint in both the FDP and YDP (P < 0.05), with higher-potentials within the YDP also significantly faster in the 0–10 m sprint (P < 0.05) and jumped significantly higher in the countermovement jump (P < 0.05). These findings indicated that greater football potential may be associated with superior perceptual-cognitive expertise and quicker sprint ability in both academy age phases, with a greater discriminatory function within the older cohort.

The effects of skill-level and playing-position on the anticipation of ball-bounce in rugby union

The ability to anticipate is a defining feature of skilled sports performance. To date, research investigating the information that underpins skilled anticipation has focused on kinematic information from an opponent and contextual factors. However, there has been a paucity of research investigating the influence of ball-flight and spin. Oval shaped balls, despite the seeming random nature, do in fact display specific bounce characteristics based on the nature of ball-flight. We tested the ability of 38 professional (categorised in to 15 ‘backs’ and 23 ‘forwards’ based on their playing position) and 20 less-skilled rugby union players to anticipate ball bounce direction for grubber and chip kicks using a temporal occlusion paradigm to restrict access to different sources of information. We predicted that skilled performers would have become attuned to both advance postural cues and the physical laws of ball flight and spin that govern ball bounce through their extensive practice and exposure to these situations, and so would anticipate more accurately than less-skilled performers. Results supported this hypothesis as skilled participants outperformed less-skilled in all occlusion conditions, however all groups anticipated more accurately with access to later emerging information sources (i.e., ball spin and rotation) with the skill level difference primarily underpinned by earlier available sources (i.e., advance postural cues). There was no difference between anticipation accuracy in professional forwards and backs and no kick type x group interaction, suggesting that the knowledge structures underpinning perceptual-cognitive expertise are not position specific. Findings have implication for models of anticipation and training design and tactics in rugby.

Off-Court Generic Perceptual-Cognitive Training in Elite Volleyball Athletes: Task-Specific Effects and Levels of Transfer.

Background: The nature of perceptual-cognitive expertise in interactive sports has gained more and more scientific interest over the last two decades. Research to understand how this expertise can be developed has not been addressed profoundly yet. In approaches to study this with interventional designs, only few studies have scrutinized several levels of transfer such as to the field. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of a generic off-court perceptual-cognitive training in elite volleyball players on three different levels: task-specific, near-transfer, and far-transfer effects. Based on overlapping cognitive processes between training and testing, we hypothesized task-specific improvements as well as positive near- and far-transfer effects after a multiple-object tracking training intervention.Methods: Twenty-two volleyball experts completed a 8-week three-dimensional (3D) multiple-object tracking (3D-MOT) training intervention. A control group (n = 21; volleyball experts also) participated in regular ball practice only. Before and after training, both groups performed tests on the 3D-MOT, four near-transfer tests in cognitive domains, and a far-transfer, lab-based, and volleyball-specific blocking test.Results: The results of the 2 × 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) (group, time) showed significant interaction effects in the 3D-MOT task [F(1,40) = 93.10; p < 0.001; = 0.70] and in two near-transfer tests [sustained attention: F(1,40) = 15.45; p < 0.001; = 0.28; processing speed: F(1,40) = 12.15; p = 0.001; = 0.23]. No significant interaction effects were found in the far-transfer volleyball test. Conclusions: Our study suggests positive effects in task-specific and two near-transfer tests of a perceptual-cognitive intervention in elite volleyball athletes. This supports a partial overlap in cognitive processing between practice and tests with the result of positive near-transfer. However, there are no significant effects in far-transfer testing. Although these current results are promising, it is still unclear how far-transfer effects of a generic perceptual-cognitive training intervention can be assured.

Perceptual-cognitive expertise when refereeing the scrum in rugby union

ABSTRACTCompared to sports performers, relatively little is known about how sports officials make decisions at a perceptual-cognitive level. Thus, this study examined the decision-making accuracy and gaze behaviour of rugby union referees of varying skill levels while reviewing scrum scenarios. Elite (n = 9) and trainee (n = 9) referees, as well as experienced players (n = 9), made decisions while watching ten projected scrum clips and wearing a mobile eye-tracker. Decision-making accuracy and gaze behaviour were recorded for each scrum. The elite and trainee referees made more accurate decisions than the players, and differences in gaze behavior were observed. The elite and trainee referees displayed lower search rates, spent more time fixating central-pack (i.e., front rows, binds, and contact point) and less time fixating outer-pack (e.g., second rows) and non-pack (e.g., other) locations, and exhibited lower entropy than the players. While search rate failed to predict decision-making accuracy, the time spent fixating central-, outer-, and non-pack locations, as well as entropy, were significant predictors. The findings have implications for training perceptual-cognitive skill among sports officials.

Enhanced visual attention in university hockey players

Elite athletes exhibit enhanced cognitive abilities related to sport, and athletes' perceptual-cognitive expertise may also transfer to computer-based cognitive tasks in the laboratory (see Voss et al., 2010 for a meta-analysis). The research in this area, however, is notoriously underpowered, often relying upon small sample sizes and producing results that fail to meet statistical significance. One recent study attempted to overcome these limitations by testing a large number of volleyball players on a range of cognitive tasks (Alves et al., 2013), but only small effects were observed, and the tasks employed did not sample the full range of visual-attentional skills. Because athletic training protocols can potentially enhance some aspects of attention but not others (e.g., Appelbaum et al., 2011), we aimed to assess whether superior performance among athletes would be observed when tested on a wider range of perceptual and attention skills. We conducted a comprehensive battery of computer-based visual tasks and compared performance between Cardiff University hockey players and non-athlete student controls. Our measures allowed for a broad assessment of a range of attentional and perceptual skills, including selective attention (flanker compatibility task), sustained dynamic attention (multiple-object tracking task), and spatial distribution of attention (useful field of view task). We found that hockey players demonstrated enhanced performance in measures of selective attention and in identifying transient stimuli at central fixation. Importantly, these perceptual enhancements are apparent after controlling for potential group differences in motivation and strategy. Our results provide novel insight into the potential transferability of athletic training to perceptual skills and have implications for generalised enhancements in cognitive performance.

The Racer's Mind-How Core Perceptual-Cognitive Expertise Is Reflected in Deliberate Practice Procedures in Professional Motorsport.

The exceptional performance of elite practitioners in domains like sports or chess is not a reflection of just exceptional general cognitive ability or innate sensorimotor superiority. Decades of research on expert performance has consistently shown that experts in all fields go to extraordinary lengths to acquire their perceptual-cognitive and motor abilities. Deliberate Practice (DP) refers to special (sub)tasks that are designed to give immediate and accurate feedback and performed repetitively with the explicit goal of improving performance. DP is generally agreed to be one of the key ingredients in acquisition of expertise (not necessarily the only one). Analyzing in detail the specific aspects of performance targeted by DP procedures may shed light on the underlying cognitive processes that support expert performance. Document analysis of professional coaching literature is one knowledge elicitation method that can be used in the early phases of inquiry to glean domain information about the skills experts in a field are required to develop. In this study this approach is applied to the domain of motor racing - specifically the perceptual-cognitive expertise enabling high-speed curve negotiation. A systematic review procedure is used to establish a corpus of texts covering the entire 60 years of professional motorsport textbooks. Descriptions of specific training procedures (that can be unambiguously interpreted as DP procedures) are extracted, and then analyzed within the hierarchical task analysis framework driver modeling. Hypotheses about the underlying cognitive processes are developed on the basis of this material. In the traditional psychological literature, steering and longitudinal control are typically considered “simple” reactive tracking tasks (model-free feedback control). The present findings suggest that—as in other forms expertise—expert level driving skill is in fact dependent on vast body of knowledge, and driven by top-down information. The knowledge elicitation in this study represents a first step toward a deeper psychological understanding of the complex cognitive underpinnings of expert performance in this domain.

Key Recent Developments and Potential Future Directions for Research in Motor Behavior

The authors review some of the most innovative and impactful developments in the field of motor behavior over the last 10–15 years, using citation reports from some of the most prominent journals in the field, as well as relying on subjective opinion from leading academic experts to identify notable contributions to knowledge generation in this broad and increasingly dynamic field of research. They delimit the scope of this task by focusing their efforts on three specific theme areas of study, notably, perceptual–cognitive expertise, motor learning, and motor control. In looking back over the last decade or so, they attempt to provide some direction by highlighting avenues for future research. Their hope is that over the next few decades these research theme areas will have even greater influence and translational impact on quality of life in many aspects of society, including sport and various clinical domains.

The role of domain-generic and domain-specific perceptual-cognitive skills in association football referees

ObjectivesWe examined the importance of perceptual-cognitive skills in association football referees. Design and methodUsing a novel approach, elite (n = 22) and sub-elite referees (n = 21) completed an extended test battery of perceptual-cognitive measures. Participants were assessed using both domain-generic (e.g., sustained attention; working memory) and domain-specific (e.g., pattern recognition) perceptual-cognitive measures within the domain of refereeing. ResultsA multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences between groups on the following domain-specific perceptual-cognitive skill measures, with elite referees performing significantly better than their sub-elite counterparts: overall decision-making performance; anticipation; and recall capacity. No significant differences were reported between the elite and sub-elite referees on domain-generic perceptual-cognitive skill measures. A stepwise discriminant analysis highlighted that a combination of five predictor variables, including four domain-specific and one domain-generic perceptual-cognitive skill measure, significantly discriminated elite and sub-elite referees, with 90.7% of referees being classified correctly. ConclusionsOur findings shed light on the skills underpinning perceptual-cognitive expertise in referees and are consistent with the existing findings on expert outfield players. Implications are discussed with regard to testing and training programs for referees and across other professional domains.

Developmental activities and the acquisition of perceptual-cognitive expertise in international field hockey players

The purpose of this study was to contrast the practice history profiles of international field hockey players and developmental activities leading to the attainment of high levels of perceptual-cognitive performance. Twenty-three international hockey players were assigned to a high performing or low performing group based on coach rankings of their perceptual and decision-making skill. Participants completed a practice history questionnaire assessing the number of hours in total practice, match play, coach-led practice, individual practice and peer-led play. Results showed that high performing players accumulated greater hours in total practice, match play, and coach-led practice compared to their low performing counterparts. Match play and coach-led practice are influential factors in the development of perceptual-cognitive performance. Diversification of sporting activities during participant’s development years did not have a negative consequence on the acquisition of hockey-specific perceptual-cognitive skills.

Comment on "Match Analysis of U9 and U10 English Premier League Academy Soccer Players Using a Global Positioning System: Relevance for Talent Identification and Development".

We read with interest the recent article written by Goto, Morris & Nevill: 'Match Analysis of U9 and U10 English Premier League Academy Soccer Players using a Global Positioning System: Relevance for Talent Identification and Development'. In summary, the authors reported time motion analysis data from match-play showing that players who were retained by their Academy covered a significantly greater distance overall and in low-speed running in comparison to peers who were released. Consequently, the authors discussed their results in the context of talent identification and development processes. In light of their findings and discussion, it is of our opinion that further debate in the context of the current body of literature is necessary.

Contextual information and perceptual-cognitive expertise in a dynamic, temporally-constrained task.

Skilled performers extract and process postural information from an opponent during anticipation more effectively than their less-skilled counterparts. In contrast, the role and importance of contextual information in anticipation has received only minimal attention. We evaluate the importance of contextual information in anticipation and examine the underlying perceptual-cognitive processes. We present skilled and less-skilled tennis players with normal video or animated footage of the same rallies. In the animated condition, sequences were created using player movement and ball trajectory data, and postural information from the players was removed, constraining participants to anticipate based on contextual information alone. Participants judged ball bounce location of the opponent's final occluded shot. The 2 groups were more accurate than chance in both display conditions with skilled being more accurate than less-skilled (Exp. 1) participants. When anticipating based on contextual information alone, skilled participants employed different gaze behaviors to less-skilled counterparts and provided verbal reports of thoughts which were indicative of more thorough evaluation of contextual information (Exp. 2). Findings highlight the importance of both postural and contextual information in anticipation and indicate that perceptual-cognitive expertise is underpinned by processes that facilitate more effective processing of contextual information, in the absence of postural information. (PsycINFO Database Record

Perceptual-cognitive expertise in combat sport: from scientific research to training

Perceptual-cognitive expertise in combat sport: from scientific research to training

Expertise and the Interaction between Different Perceptual-Cognitive Skills: Implications for Testing and Training.

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in exploring the nature of perceptual-cognitive expertise across a range of domains, such as emergency medicine (e.g., McRobert et al., 2013), music (e.g., Pearce, 2015), military combat (e.g., Williams et al., 2008), aviation (e.g., Palmisano and Gillam, 2005), and sport (e.g., Williams and Ford, 2008; Roca et al., 2011). Perceptual-cognitive expertise refers to the ability of an individual to identify and process environmental information for integration with existing and ongoing knowledge to facilitate response selection (Marteniuk, 1976). For example, in sport, experts have been shown to possess superior perceptual-cognitive skills when compared with their less-expert counterparts. These skills include: (a) postural cue usage, which is the ability to pick-up early or advance cues emanating from the postural orientation of opponents (Savelsbergh et al., 2005; Abernethy and Zawi, 2007); (b) pattern recognition, which is the capacity to recognize task-specific patterns and structure in an evolving situation (Williams et al., 2006; North et al., 2009); and (c) situational probabilities, which is the superior ability to generate more accurate predictions as to what others are likely to do in any given situation (Farrow and Reid, 2012). While considerable effort has been devoted to identifying each of these perceptual-cognitive skills using controlled, experimental tasks, limited effort has been devoted to exploring the complex interactions between these skills and the implications for testing and training across domains.

Effects of domain-specific exercise load on speed and accuracy of a domain-specific perceptual-cognitive task

In the context of perceptual-cognitive expertise it is important to know whether physiological loads influence perceptual-cognitive performance. This study examined whether a handball specific physical exercise load influenced participants’ speed and accuracy in a flicker task. At rest and during a specific interval exercise of 86.5–90% HRmax, 35 participants (experts: n=8, advanced: n=13, novices, n=14) performed a handball specific flicker task with two types of patterns (structured and unstructured). For reaction time, results revealed moderate effect sizes for group, with experts reacting faster than advanced and advanced reacting faster than novices, and for structure, with structured videos being performed faster than unstructured ones. A significant interaction for structure×group was also found, with experts and advanced players faster for structured videos, and novices faster for unstructured videos. For accuracy, significant main effects were found for structure with structured videos solved more accurately. A significant interaction for structure×group was revealed, with experts and advanced more accurate for structured scenes and novices more accurate for unstructured scenes. A significant interaction was also found for condition×structure; at rest, unstructured and structured scenes were performed with the same accuracy while under physical exercise, structured scenes were solved more accurately. No other interactions were found. These results were somewhat surprising given previous work in this area, although the impact of a specific physical exercise on a specific perceptual-cognitive task may be different from those tested generally.