Evaluating weaknesses of "perceptual-cognitive training" and "brain training" methods in sport: An ecological dynamics critique

The recent upsurge in "brain training and perceptual-cognitive training," proposing to improve isolated processes, such as brain function, visual perception, and decision-making, has created significant interest in elite sports practitioners, seeking to create an "edge" for athletes. The claims of these related "performance-enhancing industries" can be considered together as part of a process training approach proposing enhanced cognitive and perceptual skills and brain capacity to support performance in everyday life activities, including sport. For example, the "process training industry" promotes the idea that playing games not only makes you a better player but also makes you smarter, more alert, and a faster learner. In this position paper, we critically evaluate the effectiveness of both types of process training programmes in generalizing transfer to sport performance. These issues are addressed in three stages. First, we evaluate empirical evidence in support of perceptual-cognitive process training and its application to enhancing sport performance. Second, we critically review putative modularized mechanisms underpinning this kind of training, addressing limitations and subsequent problems. Specifically, we consider merits of this highly specific form of training, which focuses on training of isolated processes such as cognitive processes (attention, memory, thinking) and visual perception processes, separately from performance behaviors and actions. We conclude that these approaches may, at best, provide some "general transfer" of underlying processes to specific sport environments, but lack "specificity of transfer" to contextualize actual performance behaviors. A major weakness of process training methods is their focus on enhancing the performance in body "modules" (e.g., eye, brain, memory, anticipatory sub-systems). What is lacking is evidence on how these isolated components are modified and subsequently interact with other process "modules," which are considered to underlie sport performance. Finally, we propose how an ecological dynamics approach, aligned with an embodied framework of cognition undermines the rationale that modularized processes can enhance performance in competitive sport. An ecological dynamics perspective proposes that the body is a complex adaptive system, interacting with performance environments in a functionally integrated manner, emphasizing that the inter-relation between motor processes, cognitive and perceptual functions, and the constraints of a sport task is best understood at the performer-environment scale of analysis

The costs of conflict

A new study by researchers from The University of Queensland and Shift (an independent, non-profit center for business and human rights practice)/Harvard Kennedy School has uncovered the true scale of the costs companies incur when they come into conflict with local communities

Discussion Paper for Regional Consultations on the Implementation of the United Nations Environment Assembly Resolution on Mineral Resource Governance (UNEP/EA.4/Res. 19)

This discussion paper is prepared to support regional consultations held on the implementation of the United Nations Environment Assembly\ua0resolution on Mineral Resource Governance.\ua0The discussion paper summarises global trends in minerals\ua0and sustainable development and presents key findings from recent studies of mineral governance\ua0developed by UNEP and others. Options for the governance of minerals and lessons from best practices are also discussed. Questions are posed for consideration during consultations and future action on the topic. Findings from the regional consultations will feed into the report on the implementation of the resolution, which will be presented to the UNEA at its fifth session in February 2021

Mineral futures discussion paper: Sustainability issues, challenges and opportunities.

Minerals and metals will continue to play an important role in underpinning the future prosperity of our society. However, to confront the challenge of sustainability, the way in which resources are currently used, and might usefully be used in future, merits serious and broad discussion. This paper explores the background issues relating to mineral futures as a first step in the three-year research program of the Mineral Futures Collaboration Cluster – a collaborative program between the Australian CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation); The University of Queensland; The University of Technology, Sydney; Curtin University of Technology; CQ University; and The Australian National University

Investigating constructive technology assessment within the Minerals Down Under Flagship: Interview results.

Technological innovation in the minerals industry must be driven by the need to improve Performance according to social, as well as environmental, safety, efficiency and production criteria. This paper outlines the possibilities and rationale for incorporating constructive technology assessment into technology research and development within the CSIRO Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship (MDU). The paper develops a process of Social License In Design that attempts to address the future social challenges and opportunities of a Technology during development by utilising forecasting techniques and accounting for the perspectives and values of decision makers and likely stakeholders. Interviews with senior Technologists and social scientists within MDU reveal the institutional context into which the Social License in Design process is to be situated and highlight key factors that may inhibitor enhance its uptake

Shhh… We're talking about the Quiet Eye! A Perceptual Approach to the Transfer of Skill: Quiet Eye as an Insight into Perception-Action Coupling in Elite Football

Amidst the continued theorising and objective epistemological approach to perceptual research (Michaels and Beek, 1995), there remains little clarity regarding what information athletes use to direct decision making in performance settings and how skill is transferred from training to performance. The role of perception-action coupling within decision-making in team sports has been discussed at great length (Vaeyens et al, 2007; Pinder et al, 2011), with some consensus being reached that skilled performers do not necessarily have superior visual ability, but that their ability to locate and interpret key specifying information determines expertise in a particular skilled actions (Vickers, 2006). The methodological accord has often been to recreate core, single action motor-control tasks in the hope of elucidating data to suggest a change in behaviour in any given number of constraint manipulations (Vickers, 1996; Williams, Singer and Frehlich, 2002; Vine and Wilson, 2011). However, research remains in isolation of the complexities of the real world (Vaeyens, 2007; Williams and Grant, 1999). The Quiet Eye (QE) has become increasingly popular (Vickers, 2016), it details the final fixation towards a specific location or object within 3* of visual angle or less for a minimum of 100m/s (Vickers, 2016). It is reasonable to suggest that QE describes the variable in which to examine the relationship between perception and action (Panchuk and Vickers, 2006). A SensoMotoric Instrument – Eye Tracking Glasses (SMI-ETG) binocular system will be employed within an elite level goalkeeping context. QE data will be collected in three different practice trial environments and compared to QE measures taken in a representative performance simulation. The practice trial environment design will be informed by principles of ecological dynamics as presented in the Environment Design Framework (Newcombe et al, in preparation). 1. To understand the gaze behaviours of elite goalkeepers in-situ to determine an optimum approach to training that represents similar gaze patterns and fixations to competitive performance through the use of SMI Eye Tracking Glasses. 2. Use the Quiet Eye as an objective measure to understand how transfer occurs between training and performance from the means of perceptual attunement

Experiential Learning Through Participatory Action Research in an Interdisciplinary Leadership Training Program

Background: Experience in multidisciplinary collaboration among healthcare providers, leaders in public health, and educators is essential to effectively address the diverse needs of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and their families. Purpose: We describe three participatory action research (PAR) projects from an interdisciplinary training program, which used experiential learning to enhance leadership competencies and promote inclusive services. Trainees report their leadership growth as providers and advocates for children with I/DD using experiential learning through PAR. Approach: Trainees discuss their engagement with organizations serving children with I/DD and ways that experiential learning supported leadership skill development, commitment to inclusive person- and family-centered practices, and contributions to disability advocacy and support programs. Conclusion: PAR is a beneficial experiential learning approach to foster interdisciplinary collaboration through inclusive community engagement. Related training programs may adopt a similar approach to build leadership skills among professionals in health care, public health, and education, and promote optimal health outcomes for children with I/DD

Social Impact Assessment: Guidance for assessing and managing the social impacts of projects

The purpose of this Guidance Note is to provide advice to various stakeholders about what is expected in good practice social impact assessment (SIA) and social impact management processes, especially in relation to project development. Project development refers to dams, mines, oil and gas drilling, factories, ports, airports, pipelines, electricity transmission corridors, roads, railway lines and other infrastructure including large-scale agriculture, forestry and aquaculture projects. This Guidance Note builds on IAIA’s (2003) International Principles for Social Impact Assessment. While the International Principles outline the overarching understandings of the SIA field, including the expected values of the profession, this document seeks to provide advice on good practice in the undertaking and appraisal of SIAs and the adaptive management of projects to address the social issues. As a statement of good and sometimes leading practice, not all the information in this document will necessarily be applicable in every situation – people utilising this information will need to establish for themselves what is appropriate in each particular context. The intended users of this document include: • SIA Practitioners/Consultants who want to know how their practice compares with international best practice; • Project Developers/Proponents (private sector or government) to assist them in evaluating SIA consultants and in knowing what to expect from consultants; • Regulatory agencies in terms of judging the quality and acceptability of SIA reports and in determining what procedures and expectations will be; • Social specialists in the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), such as the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the African Development Bank (AfDB), European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); • Social staff in other financial institutions, especially Equator Principles banks; • Development cooperation agencies; • Government planning agencies; • Communities and local peoples; • Civil society organizations; • People responsible for SIA regulatory frameworks