The influence of group membership on cross-contextual imitation

Research on mimicry has demonstrated that individuals imitate in-group members more strongly than out-group members. In the present study, we tested whether such top-down modulation also applies for more extreme forms of direct mapping, such as for cross-contextual imitation settings, in which individuals imitate others' movements without sharing a common goal or context. Models on self-other control suggest that top-down modulations are based merely on a direct link between social sensory processing and imitation. That is, perceived similarities between oneself and another person is sufficient to amplify a shared representation between own and others' actions, which then trigger imitation. However, motivational accounts explain such findings with the assumption that individuals are motivated to affiliate with others. Because imitation is linked to positive social consequences, individuals should imitate in-group members more strongly than out-group members. We tested these two theoretical accounts against each other by applying a cross-contextual imitation paradigm. The results demonstrate that in-group members are more strongly cross-contextually imitated than out-group members the higher individuals' motivation to affiliate with the in-group is. This supports motivational models but not self-other control accounts. Further theoretical implications are discussed

Neural markers of performance states in an Olympic athlete: An EEG case study in air-pistol shooting

This study focused on identifying the neural markers underlying optimal and suboptimal performance experiences of an elite air-pistol shooter, based on the tenets of the multi-action plan (MAP) model. According to the MAP model’s assumptions, skilled athletes’ cortical patterns are expected to differ among optimal/automatic (Type 1), optimal/controlled (Type 2), suboptimal/controlled (Type 3), and suboptimal/automatic (Type 4) performance experiences. We collected performance (target pistol shots), cognitive-affective (perceived control, accuracy, and hedonic tone), and cortical activity data (32-channel EEG) of an elite shooter. Idiosyncratic descriptive analyses revealed differences in perceived accuracy in regard to optimal and suboptimal performance states. Event-Related Desynchronization/Synchronization analysis supported the notion that optimal-automatic performance experiences (Type 1) were characterized by a global synchronization of cortical arousal associated with the shooting task, whereas suboptimal controlled states (Type 3) were underpinned by high cortical activity levels in the attentional brain network. Results are addressed in the light of the neural efficiency hypothesis and reinvestment theory. Perceptual training recommendations aimed at restoring optimal performance levels are discussed

An automatic visual analysis system for tennis

This article presents a novel video analysis system for coaching tennis players of all levels, which uses computer vision algorithms to automatically edit and index tennis videos into meaningful annotations. Existing tennis coaching software lacks the ability to automatically index a tennis match into key events, and therefore, a coach who uses existing software is burdened with time-consuming manual video editing. This work aims to explore the effectiveness of a system to automatically detect tennis events. A secondary aim of this work is to explore the bene- fits coaches experience in using an event retrieval system to retrieve the automatically indexed events. It was found that automatic event detection can significantly improve the experience of using video feedback as part of an instructional coaching session. In addition to the automatic detection of key tennis events, player and ball movements are automati- cally tracked throughout an entire match and this wealth of data allows users to find interesting patterns in play. Player and ball movement information are integrated with the automatically detected tennis events, and coaches can query the data to retrieve relevant key points during a match or analyse player patterns that need attention. This coaching software system allows coaches to build advanced queries, which cannot be facilitated with existing video coaching solutions, without tedious manual indexing. This article proves that the event detection algorithms in this work can detect the main events in tennis with an average precision and recall of 0.84 and 0.86, respectively, and can typically eliminate man- ual indexing of key tennis events

Key-Pose Prediction in Cyclic Human Motion

In this paper we study the problem of estimating innercyclic time intervals within repetitive motion sequences of top-class swimmers in a swimming channel. Interval limits are given by temporal occurrences of key-poses, i.e. distinctive postures of the body. A key-pose is defined by means of only one or two specific features of the complete posture. It is often difficult to detect such subtle features directly. We therefore propose the following method: Given that we observe the swimmer from the side, we build a pictorial structure of poselets to robustly identify random support poses within the regular motion of a swimmer. We formulate a maximum likelihood model which predicts a key-pose given the occurrences of multiple support poses within one stroke. The maximum likelihood can be extended with prior knowledge about the temporal location of a key-pose in order to improve the prediction recall. We experimentally show that our models reliably and robustly detect key-poses with a high precision and that their performance can be improved by extending the framework with additional camera views.Comment: Accepted at WACV 2015, 8 pages, 3 figure

Inside the brain of an elite athlete: The neural processes that support high achievement in sports

Events like the World Championships in athletics and the Olympic Games raise the public profile of competitive sports. They may also leave us wondering what sets the competitors in these events apart from those of us who simply watch. Here we attempt to link neural and cognitive processes that have been found to be important for elite performance with computational and physiological theories inspired by much simpler laboratory tasks. In this way we hope to inspire neuroscientists to consider how their basic research might help to explain sporting skill at the highest levels of performance

Effective skill refinement: Focusing on process to ensure outcome

In contrast to the abundance of motor skill acquisition and performance research, there is a paucity of work which addresses how athletes with an already learnt and well-established skill may go about making a subtle change, or refinement, to that skill. Accordingly, the purpose of this review paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of current understanding pertaining to such practice. Specifically, this review addresses deliberately initiated refinements to closed and self-paced skills (e.g., javelin throwing, golf swing and horizontal jumps). In doing so, focus is directed to three fundamental considerations within applied coaching practice and future research endeavours; the intended outcomes, process and evaluative measures of skill refinement. Conclusions suggest that skill refinement is not the same as skill acquisition or performing already learnt skills with high-levels of automaticity. Due to the complexity of challenge faced, refinements are best addressed as an interdisciplinary solution, with objective measures informing coach decision making

The face inhibition effect: Social contrast or motor competition?

Merely viewing the faces of famous athletes affects the observers' motor system, suggesting that actionbased information is a core feature of person representations, even when no specific action is visible (Bach & Tipper, 2006). Unexpectedly, these person-based motor priming effects were inhibitory. Foot responses were slower when identifying footballers, and hand responses for tennis players. Here, we demonstrate that these inhibitory effects are only evoked when action is implicitly associated with the athletes; when the athletes are seen performing their skilled actions the effect reverses towards facilitation. The contrast between inhibition evoked by implicit action priming and facilitation evoked by the explicit presentation of an action supports the notion of inhibitory control in the motor system. We hypothesise that when no specific action is perceived, a range of actions are activated triggering lateral inhibition, whereas when a specific action is viewed, there is no competition and excitation facilitates similar responses. © 2011 Psychology Press