Perceptual-cognitive expertise, practice history profiles and recall performance in soccer

We examined whether high- or low-performing soccer players, classified based on established measures of perceptual-cognitive expertise, differed in regard to their practice history profiles and ability to recall elements of match performance. In Study 1, we measured perceptual-cognitive expertise in elite (n= 48) and non-elite (n= 12) youth soccer players using empirical tests of perceptual-cognitive skill. We then used a quartile split to stratify elite players into either high-performing (n= 12) or low-performing (n= 12) groups based on their test scores. A group of non-elite soccer players (n= 12) acted as controls. In Study 2, we used an established questionnaire to examine retrospectively the participation history profiles of the three groups. The high-performing group had accumulated more hours in soccer-specific play activity over the last 6 years of engagement in the sport compared to their low-performing counterparts and the non-elite controls. No differences were reported for hours accumulated in soccer-specific practice or competition between the high- and low-performing groups. In Study 3, a novel test was developed to examine episodic memory recall in soccer. Although this test successfully differentiated elite from non-elite players, no differences were evident between high- and low-performing groups, implying that episodic memory recall may not be a crucial component of perceptual-cognitive expertise in soccer.     

Does Grit Influence Sport-Specific Engagement and Perceptual-Cognitive Expertise in Elite Youth Soccer?

We examined whether soccer players who score low and high on the personality trait grit can be differentiated based on their sport-specific engagement and perceptual-cognitive expertise. Findings revealed that grittier players accumulated significantly more time in sport-specific activities including competition, training, play, and indirect involvement. Moreover, there was a significant main effect for performance on the perceptual-cognitive skills tests across groups, with grittier players performing better than less gritty players on the assessments of decision making and situational probability. The findings are the first to demonstrate a potential link between grit, sport-specific engagement, and perceptual-cognitive expertise.     

Perceptual load in sport and the heuristic value of the perceptual load paradigm in examining expertise-related perceptual-cognitive adaptations

In two experiments, we transferred perceptual load theory to the dynamic field of team sports and tested the predictions derived from the theory using a novel task and stimuli. We tested a group of college students (N = 33) and a group of expert team sport players (N = 32) on a general perceptual load task and a complex, soccer-specific perceptual load task in order to extend the understanding of the applicability of perceptual load theory and further investigate whether distractor interference may differ between the groups, as the sport-specific processing task may not exhaust the processing capacity of the expert participants. In both, the general and the specific task, the pattern of results supported perceptual load theory and demonstrates that the predictions of the theory also transfer to more complex, unstructured situations. Further, perceptual load was the only determinant of distractor processing, as we neither found expertise effects in the general perceptual load task nor the sport-specific task. We discuss the heuristic utility of using response-competition paradigms for studying both general and domain-specific perceptual-cognitive adaptations.     

Characterising expert representations during real-time action: A Skill Theory application to soccer

In various domains, experts are found to possess elaborate domain-specific representations they developed over years. In this study, we provide the first systematic attempt to characterise the short-term representations among individuals with different expertise levels. We showed videos of soccer game plays to expert, near-expert and non-expert soccer players and asked them to describe the actions taking place. Verbalisations were coded based on Fischer's Skill Theory. Monte Carlo permutation tests revealed that players with higher expertise constructed representations of higher complexity (regardless of their specific content). Taking the content of the representations into account, we found that higher expertise soccer players relatively more often included high complexity levels of actions not including the ball and (moving) players on the field. These findings improve our understanding of perceptual-cognitive expertise by demonstrating how actors with different levels of expertise integrate the information they perceive to construct their representations in real time.     

Expertise in Ultra-Endurance Triathletes Early Sport Involvement,Training Structure,and the Theory of Deliberate Practice

Abstract

The theory of deliberate practice (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Römer, 1993) is predicated on the concept that the engagement in specific forms of practice is necessary for the attainment of expertise. The purpose of this paper was to examine the quantity and type of training performed by expert UE triathletes. Twenty-eight UE triathletes were stratified into expert, middle of the pack, and back of the pack groups based on previous finishing times. All participants provided detailed information regarding their involvement in sports in general and the three triathlon sports in particular. Results illustrated that experts performed more training than non-experts but that the relationship between training and performance was not monotonic as suggested by Ericsson et al. Further, experts' training was designed so periods of high training stress were followed by periods of low stress. However, early specialization was not a requirement for expertise. This work indicates that the theory of deliberate practice does not fully explain expertise development in UE triathlon.     

Capturing the Naturally Occurring Superior Performance of Experts in the Laboratory: Toward a Science of Expert and Exceptional Performance

ABSTRACT— Expertise researchers have traditionally shied away from studying the highest levels of achievement in favor of studying basic cognitive processes, such as memory and categorization. In this article, we present a different approach that is focused on capturing superior (expert) performance on representative tasks that reveal the essential characteristics of expertise in a given domain. In domains where expert performance is measurable, acquisition is gradual and the highest levels are only attained after 10 years of intense preparation—even for the most "talented." Analyses of reproducibly superior performance show that it is mediated by physiological adaptations and cognitive skills acquired as a result of the cumulative effects of special practice activities (deliberate practice). It appears that the genes necessary to attain such adaptations and expert skills can be activated in healthy children—the only clear exceptions to date being genes that control body size and height. Our knowledge of how experts acquire their superior skills provides insights into the potential for human adaptation and skill acquisition and has important implications for theories of the structure of general and expert cognition, as well as for training interventions in applied psychology and education.     

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.     

When the going gets tough,what happens to quiet eye? The role of time pressure and performance pressure during basketball free throws

In aiming sport contexts, the quiet eye (QE) - the final ocular fixation before movement initiation - is a crucial perceptual-cognitive skill. Indeed, an extended QE permits athletes to achieve high performances, aiding optimal attentional control, particularly in situations in which athletes are "under pressure." Such situations are common in sport, especially when time runs out, and even just a few points can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Although QE has been widely investigated across several sports and tasks, no previous studies have considered both the role of time pressure and performance pressure on QE. The current study aimed to comprehend the effect of tough sport situations on QE characteristics. Accordingly, we tested basketball players (competitive-élites and semi-élites) in free throw trials, manipulating both the time available to perform the task and the relevance of the performance. The results showed that time pressure and performance pressure impaired QE characteristics, regardless of expertise levels. Also, time pressure led to a decrease in free throw accuracy. Interestingly, the match between task demands and the ability to cope seemed to play a role on QE, especially in the competitive-élite players, with negative QE characteristics (short and late) when task demands exceeded the ability to cope. These findings suggest that QE research and QE training protocols should account for time pressure, performance pressure, and the players' perceived ability to cope with the requested task.     

Specificity of Postural Control: Comparing Expert and Intermediate Dancers

The expert–novice approach is inappropriate for studying postural control in sport and dance when novices are completely unable to perform relevant postural tasks and experts cannot demonstrate specific skills on everyday postural tasks. We tested expertise-specific differences on 6 static everyday and 5 dynamic dance-like postural tasks of varying difficulty in 13 professional and 12 intermediate nonprofessional dancers. Results showed a clear expert advantage on sway area for dance-like postural tasks, but not for static everyday tasks. This effect was also found for the control parameter of root mean square (RMS) velocity and partly for RMS amplitude of the difference signal between CoP and CoG line location. Results indicate that the expert advantage is task-specific and deliver new insights into the specificity of experts' postural performance.     

Girls & Women Rock: Celebrating 35 Years of Sport & Title IX March 28–31, 2007

Fifty-seven female netballers completed a training history profile to examine whether the achievement of performance milestones and/or accumulation of sport-specific practice were indicative of an athlete's level of expertise. Similar to previous research, results revealed that expert and developmental athletes accumulated a greater number of hours in netball-specific practice relative to the recreational participants, but did not differ in the number of sports played or hours accumulated in non-netball specific practice. Interestingly, some performance milestones were achieved by the expert and developmental athletes earlier than the recreational participants, however, the developmental athletes achieved a number of milestones at an earlier age than the experts. These findings are discussed in relation to contemporary models of skill development, namely deliberate practice (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Römer, 1993) and the developmental model of sport participation (Côté, 1999) and the underpinning socio-environmental factors that may influence sport participation and subsequent development of expertise.     

Individual differences in attentional capability are linked to creative decision making

There is a link between visual attention and creativity concerning the generation of rare and flexible decisions/solutions. However, the relationship between individual differences in attentional capability and creative decision making has not yet been investigated in detail. The current study scrutinized this link in a sport‐specific divergent thinking task including videos of real game situations and compared performances between football players being divided into two different expertise levels (expert and amateur football players). We conducted a multiple linear regression analysis to assess whether attentional capability along the attentional focus’ meridians (horizontal, vertical, diagonal) and participants’ expertise level predict creative decision making. The attentional capability along the horizontal meridian of participants’ attentional focus and participants’ expertise level emerged as positive predictors. The findings provide evidence of a relationship between football players’ spatial distribution of attention that match the demands of their sport and an expertise advantage in sport‐specific creative decision making. Implications are not only important for sports, but also for all areas in which spatial attention is required in order to generate unusual solutions.     

Who's the Best? A Relativistic View of Expertise

The dictionary and the expert performance approach view an expert as one who, after sufficient training and experience in a domain, can perform the requisite tasks above a threshold level. In contrast, we argue for a performance‐based approach that implies expertise is a continuum; the experts are the best performers. Most tasks in which expertise can be demonstrated have an underlying core of judgment, including domains in which the tasks call for judgment to be overlain with performance, prediction, or instruction. To evaluate judgment, we employ the metaphor of the judge as a measuring instrument. Like an instrument, expert judgment according to the performance‐based approach has three key properties: discrimination, consistency, and validity. Validity requires ground truth and is usually difficult to establish; but the other two properties are readily observable, and they are combined in the Cochran–Weiss–Shanteau index. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Deliberate practice in dogs: a canine model of expertise

The acquisition of expertise is an area of controversy between those who lean more toward learning and those who lean more toward talent. Because the genetics and early life experiences of humans are not open to direct manipulation, human studies are of limited use in this debate. Studies using nonhumans as expert models may prove useful in resolving this dispute. For nonhumans to be considered proper models of human experts, there must be evidence supporting a shared acquisition mechanism. A candidate mechanism is deliberate practice. The author tested the deliberate practice theory of expertise acquisition on dogs competing in the sport of agility. The author examined the relationships between amounts of accumulated deliberate practice and agility performance measures. The author found there was a statistically significant relationship between the amount of deliberate practice and measured performance in agility dogs, even when controlling for sex, breed group, age, and height.     

Exploring the Nature of Human Resource Developers' Expertise

This article explores the nature of expertise of HR developers who work on training, career development, and developmental processes in an organization. The study draws on the data from a survey on HR developers in Finland (n = 164), possessing both quality and length of education and experience typical of experts in HRD. The HR developers evaluated their work performance through work roles and outputs, importance of competencies needed in performance, and related developmental interests in competencies. The results indicated that in terms of work performance there are specific areas of change agency, trainership, and management in HRD work determined mostly by contextual factors; there is also a common element which refers to dealing with the less explicit processes of change. Also, there seem to be common areas in expert knowledge, but the importance of these varies according to work role. In terms of importance and developmental interest, analytical and coaching competence seemed to be central. Seemingly both are less explicit and informal areas of expert knowledge. Additionally, both are acquired mainly through experience, and are areas which enable expertise to be communicated and mediated for the use of the organization. These findings are discussed further in relation to the nature and further development of HR developer's expertise.     

Transfer of pattern recall skills may contribute to the development of sport expertise

Superior recall of domain‐specific patterns is well established as a defining attribute of expert performers. Recent studies on the developmental histories of expert team ball sport players (e.g. Baker, Côté, & Abernethy, 2003a ) also suggest that experts characteristically receive exposure to a wide range of sports in their developing years and that this related sports experience may reduce the amount of sport‐specific training needed to become an expert. This study examined whether the facilitation of expertise associated with other sport experience might arise from positive transfer of pattern recall skills from one sport to another. Expert netball, basketball and field hockey players and experienced non‐experts performed a recall task for patterns of play derived from each of these sports. Experts from sports different to those shown in the presented pattern consistently outperformed non‐experts in their recall of defensive player positions, suggesting some selective transfer of pattern recall skills may indeed be possible. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

智力运动专家领域内知觉与记忆的加工特点及其机制

智力运动是以开发智力为目的且涉及到较多认知活动的竞技运动。研究表明, 长期的智力运动经验会影响专家在领域内任务中知觉及记忆的行为表现及其大脑活动。智力运动经验使专家知觉广度增大的同时, 促进专家对棋子关系进行整体性知觉加工, 且这一过程与颞顶联合区、缘上回、压后皮质、侧副沟、梭状回等区域有关; 在长时记忆中存储的具体(空间位置)及抽象信息(知识、策略、棋子关系等)是专家记忆优势发生的基础, 该过程与内侧颞叶、额叶和顶叶有关。未来研究可以从智力运动类型、创新实验范式, 结合测量设备及认知特点, 深入探讨智力运动专家整体知觉优势及记忆优势的神经机制, 为人工智能和技能训练等提供理论依据。     

When what you know is not enough: expertise and gender dynamics in task groups

This study investigates how the contribution, identification, and consideration of expertise within groups are affected by gender differences. The authors examined the effects of member expertise and gender on others' perceptions of expertise, actual and own perceptions of influence, and group performance on a decision-making task. The authors' findings are consistent with social role theory and expectation states theory. Women were less influential when they possessed expertise, and having expertise decreased how expert others perceived them to be. Conversely, having expertise was relatively positive for men. These differences were reflected in group performance, as groups with a female expert underperformed groups with a male expert. Thus, contrary to common expectations, possessing expertise did not ameliorate the gender effects often seen in workgroups. The findings are discussed in light of their implications for organizational workgroups in which contribution of expertise is critical to group performance.     

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Sport Organizational Effectiveness Scale

The purpose of this study was to examine the factorial validity of the 5-factor model of sport organizational effectiveness developed by Papadimitriou and Taylor. This questionnaire has 33 items which assess five composite effectiveness dimensions pertinent to the operation of sport organizations: calibre of the board and external liaisons, interest in athletes, internal procedures, long term planning, and sport science support. The multiple constituency approach was used as a theoretical framework for developing this scale. Data were obtained from respondents affiliated with 20 Greek national sport organizations with a questionnaire. Analysis indicated that the 5-factor model of effectiveness is workable in assessing the organizational performance of nonprofit sport organizations. The application of the multiple constituency approach in studying sport organizational effectiveness was also suggested.     

Response to Commentaries: Actions as Perceptual-Conceptual "Gestalts"

The author clarifies the objective and essence of the psychological, or perceptual-cognitive, approach to voluntary movement. According to that approach, voluntary movements are organized and performed as meaningful, perceptible events with bodily and environmental aspects. Body-oriented control is thus not neglected in the perceptual-cognitive approach but is actually an important issue. He further clarifies how material and psychological factors relate to each other in motor control and why they are not considered a coalition of constraints. The central importance of the sparse coding principle for the perceptual-cognitive approach is underlined. Finally, the author argues that the psychological information format is particularly suitable for motion control and stresses the power of the perceptual-cognitive approach to possibly provide a unifying framework for understanding human voluntary movements.     

Psychology Has to Deal with Efferences Too

The authors argue that F. Mechsner's (2004) perceptual-cognitive approach is an important contribution to the current discussion of motor control. Mechsner presents convincing evidence against direct motor control. Nevertheless, the mechanisms by which perceptual-cognitive representations determine efferent commands must still be clarified.