Gender differences in target throwing skills and dart playing performance: evidence from elite dart players

A series of experimental and quasi-experimental research were conducted to investigate gender differences and differences across levels of skill amongst elite dart players. Experiments 1 and 1a employed an identical experimental setting and were designed to investigate gender differences in target throwing accuracy and attitudes towards target throwing among undergraduate students and elite dart players. A further aim was to investigate differences between level of skill for the elite players. Results showed an overall significant superiority for men in target throwing accuracy, moreover, analyses of questionnaire data found significant gender differences in attitudes towards target throwing. Experiment 2 examined whether gender differences in target throwing accuracy may be eliminated if elite dart players undertook the same target throwing task as in Experiment 1 a using their non-preferred hand. The results of Experiment 2 showed that when using their non-preferred hand gender differences in target throwing accuracy were eliminated. In Study 1 data from the same elite dart players employed in Experiments 1 a and 2 were correlated with archival data, in the form of single dart averages, taken from a 'real world' dart playing environment. A strong relationship was found between the two dependent measures for the men's data whereas results for women, although in the same direction, did not reach statistical significance. Using single dart averages as the dependent measure, Study 2 investigated the extent of gender differences across three levels of skill. Results showed that the extent of gender differences was far-reaching with data from the lowest skill level of men players 8 being significantly superior to that of the highest skill level for women players. There were also uniformly predictable significant within gender differences for men across levels of skill but, interestingly, this was not the case for women. Study 3 explored whether physical and experiential factors, namely, height, arm length and career span may have an impact on the significant gender differences found in dart playing performance. Analysis of the data found that even when physical and experiential factors were controlled for there were still significant gender differences in dart playing performance. By way of an ex-post facto research approach Study 4 employed a semi-structured interview technique, similar to that used by Ericsson, Krampe and Tesch-Romer (1993), the aim of which was to investigate the development of elite dart players representing two levels of skill. The results revealed no significant differences on demographic variables namely, age, starting age and career span. Variables related to particular dart playing activities were also investigated. In brief, results showed evidence to suggest that deliberate practice could account for differences in performance across levels of skill but not for the superiority of men over women. Implications of these findings and suggestions for follow up research are discussed

Identifying the causal mechanisms of the quiet eye

Scientists who have examined the gaze strategies employed by athletes have determined that longer quiet eye (QE) durations (QED) are characteristic of skilled compared to less-skilled performers. However, the cognitive mechanisms of the QE and, specifically, how the QED affects performance are not yet fully understood. We review research that has examined the functional mechanism underlying QE and discuss the neural networks that may be involved. We also highlight the limitations surrounding QE measurement and its definition and propose future research directions to address these shortcomings. Investigations into the behavioural and neural mechanisms of QE will aid the understanding of the perceptual and cognitive processes underlying expert performance and the factors that change as expertise develops

Equal workload demands may hinder the ability of focus of attention to impact motor learning

Two bodies of literature have addressed the question of how attentional focus relates to learning and performance of a motor task. The literature on direction of attention has found that focusing on the effects of one’s movement, an external focus, rather than on one’s bodily movements, an internal focus, leads to more effective and efficient movements and subsequently better performance on a variety of sport-related motor skills. The literature on the relevance of attention has determined that novices perform well when focused on aspects of the skill execution itself, but experience performance decrements when asked to focus on something extraneous. Experts show the opposite tendency in that they perform more poorly when focused on the skill execution than on a distractor. Both of these areas of research are well-established in their own right, but they are not purely independent because these different styles of focus overlap. A novice golfer who focuses on the swing of his arms while putting is predicted to do more poorly due to an internal focus, but the other body of literature predicts success due to a skill-relevant focus. Few have attempted to research the effects of both dimensions of focus simultaneously. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify whether the interaction of external and skill-focused attention could be more beneficial to skill acquisition and retention than either one separately. Participants learned to throw darts while receiving one type of attentional focus instruction: (1) internal, skill-relevant; (2) external, skill-relevant; (3) internal, extraneous; (4) external, extraneous. They returned 48 hours later to perform retention trials without any attentional instructions. Workload was assessed via a self-report survey for participants in each condition to assess whether any differences in subjective difficulty exist between the groups. Although all participants improved their throwing accuracy throughout the acquisition period, there were no performance differences seen between the conditions at acquisition or retention. There were also no differences in perceived workload between the conditions. These results are expected if workload does, in fact, mediate the effect of focus of attention on motor skill performance. With workload demands similar, there exist no differences in performance between groups following different focus instructions. Further, the only reliable predictor of performance on the task was the participant’s self-rating of expertise reported prior to participation. Future between-subjects research designs in motor learning should aim to balance participants across groups using self-ratings of skill level. Finally, the NASA-TLX should be used to measure workload in the typical methodology used in direction of attention literature and skill-relevance of focus literature, where performance differences have been observed, in order to determine whether differences in workload demands could be partially responsible for those performance differences

The use of eye tracking glasses in basketball shooting : a systematic review

Sports performance is related to cognitive processes that precede the motor task to be developed. In this way, the coupling between visual information and motor behavior has a major importance in filtering the visual information, necessary to the accomplishment of the motor task to be executed, ignoring ‘accessory’ stimuli. In this field, this essay has the goal of achieving a systematic review about past studies in the context of basketball shooting. We bring to you some evidence that support the applicability and efficiency of Eye Tracking Glasses systems in the analysis of visual attention in basketball shooting, emphasizing the concept of Quiet Eye, interconnected with anxiety and occlusion of vision. The results of the studies demonstrate the importance of the use of Eye Tracking Glasses for the evaluation/intervention in the process of visual attention training related to efficiency in shooting.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The effects of internally and externally directed attention during motor skill execution and learning

Focusing attention onto the intended outcome or goal of a movement (an External focus of attention) has been shown to be more beneficial to the learning and performance of movements than focusing onto the components of the movement being carried out (an Internal focus of attention). In this thesis, four studies assessed the effects of attentional focusing strategies on the learning and execution of motor skills during different situations. Study 1 demonstrated that an internal focus of attention during a suprapostural pointing task resulted in degraded postural control as well as larger movements of the hand and arm. In Study 2 novices using an external focus were more accurate in a dart throwing task than those using an internal focus, but no different from a control condition. In Study 3 two experiments investigated the effects of attentional focuses on postural control at rest and whilst fatigued. Postural control was no better using external focus when compared to an internal focus at rest, but was better than baseline. When fatigued (localised and generalised), balance was significantly deteriorated using an external focus, but not when an internal focus was used. In two experiments during Study 4 novices carrying out a dart throwing task used different attentional focusing instructions during practice and later performance. During practice sessions in Experiment 4.1 and 4.2 accuracy was not affected by attentional focusing instructions. Using an external focus during performance resulted in significantly better accuracy than using an internal focus. In Experiment 4.2, novices who preferred an internal focus but used an external focus during performance performed less accurately than participants who preferred the external focus. Findings demonstrate that the benefits of an external focus of attention is evident in performance situations, whereas an internal focus may be beneficial whilst fatigued and is not detrimental during practice

Investigating the Informational Nature of a Modeled Visual Demonstration.

This study investigated the informational nature of a modeled visual demonstration of slalom-ski type movements performed on a ski simulator. Hypotheses exist suggesting that a model may convey information primarily about movement coordination (Newell, 1985), or movement form (Whiting, 1988), but there is no empirical evidence that this information is used by the learner so that skill acquisition is facilitated. To investigate this information question, three experiments were conducted that replicated and extended a study by Whiting, Bijlard, and den Brinker (1987) by analyzing movement kinematics of subjects in addition to movement outcome. In the first experiment, the expert model\u27s performance was analyzed. The second and third experiment investigated the acquisition of slalom-ski type movements for groups that observed the expert model on all 5 days, groups that observed the model only on day 1, and groups that learned the skill under discovery learning conditions. Results of movement outcome variables platform amplitude and frequency revealed that observing a model was advantageous over discovery learning. Analysis of movement kinematics suggested that the expert model may have conveyed information about the relative motion of torso and limbs, or movement coordination, that facilitated the acquisition of the slalom-ski type movements. Results further suggested that the coordination information the model may have conveyed was used early in learning, and that observing a model during later stages of learning was of no further benefit

Understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms of sports performance under pressure through cognitive training

Accumulating research has emphasised that anxiety can profoundly interfere with task performance during sporting competitive contexts. Recent research has implicated disruptions to attentional control in explaining such impairments. The present PhD thesis intended to build upon recent advances in sports science and cognitive affective neuroscience, by marrying theoretical predictions from the Attentional Control Theory (ACT; Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos & Calvo, 2007) with recent developments in cognitive training, to develop lab based training interventions, to improve attentional focus and performance in lab-based and field-based sporting tasks performed under pressure. In doing so, another critical aim of the thesis was to identify potential neurocognitive mechanisms by which the experience of pressure related anxiety in sporting contexts can lead to impairments in motor performance. In Chapter 2, a sample of tennis players undertook training on a novel visual search training task designed to enhance inhibitory control. Transfer effects of training were observed on a lab index of inhibition, tennis performance and gaze behaviours reflecting attentional control in tennis. Results of Chapter 3 in turn revealed that training on a an adaptive working memory training task, resulted in transfer effects on indices of WMC, tennis performance and gaze behaviours. In Chapter 4 an 5 the emphasis was placed on the potential impact of attentional biases on performance under pressure. In Chapter 4, tennis players undertook an Attentional Bias Modification training intervention and results indicated that the intervention elicited significant changes in attentional bias with transfer effects of training also being observed on tennis performance. Finally, in Chapter 5, a study was conducted to explore whether neural markers of cognitive effort and error monitoring would modulate the attentional bias-performance relationship in a sample of experienced tennis players. Result indicated that the relationship between levels of attentional biases and tennis performance was modulated by the N2 as measured on a flanker task. Performance was also associated with participants’ levels of attentional biases which was in turn modulated by their gaze behaviours during the tennis task performed under pressure. Overall, findings from this PhD thesis suggest that it is possible to target specific cognitive mechanisms such as attentional control and attentional biases, using lab based interventions, to enable athletes to cope with the negative impact of competitive pressure on motor performance. Moreover, the current findings provide novel insight into the potential neurocognitive mechanisms that modulate how sports performers respond to competitive pressure

Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Vol. 64, No. 1

Editor’s Notes (James W. Bradley) Rediscovering the Atlatl: Observations on the Dynamics of Atlatl Design and Operation Based on Experimentation (Timothy H. Ives) A Cache of Green Points from the Pringle Site (19-MD-18), Tewksbury, MA (Eugene Winter) “I Can\u27t Read So Good, But I Like Archaeology”, Tony C.: An Educational and Public Outreach Project in the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor (Alan Leveillee and Joseph N. Waller, Jr.) An Avocational-based Site Registration: A View from New Jersey (Peter Pagoulatos) Adaptation and Resistance: A Contact Period Component at Den Rock, Lawrence, MA (Jeffrey Robert Carovillano

The effect of action observation and motor imagery combinations on upper limb kinematics and EMG during dart-throwing

Recent research has begun to employ interventions that combine action observation and motor imagery (AOMI) with positive results. However, little is known about the underpinning facilitative effect on performance. Participants (n = 50) were randomly allocated to one of five training groups: action observation (AO), motor imagery (MI), simultaneous action observation and motor imagery (S‐AOMI), alternate action observation and motor imagery (A‐AOMI), and control. The task involved dart‐throwing at a concentric circle dartboard at pre‐ and post‐test. Interventions were conducted 3 times per week for 6 weeks. Data were collected from performance outcomes and mean muscle activation of the upper and forearm muscles. Angular velocity and peak angular velocity measurements of the elbow were also collected from the throwing arm. Results showed performance of the A‐AOMI group improved to a significantly greater degree than the AO (P = .04), MI (P = .04), and control group (P = .02), and the S‐AOMI group improved to a greater degree than the control group (P = .02). Mean muscle activation of the triceps brachii significantly reduced in the S‐AOMI and A‐AOMI (P < .01) groups, and participants in the AO (P = .04), A‐AOMI, and S‐AOMI (P < .01) groups significantly reduced activation in the bicep brachii from pre‐ to post‐test. Peak angular velocity significantly decreased from pre‐ to post‐test in both A‐AOMI and S‐AOMI (P < .01) groups. The results reaffirm the benefits of AOMI for facilitating skill learning and provide an insight how these interventions produce favorable changes in EMG and movement kinematics