The past, present and future of research on judgment and decision making in sport

Objectives: The study of judgment and decision-making in sports is at least as old as the anniversary of FEPSAC we celebrate with this special issue. It seems therefore appropriate to look into the past, present and future of this topic. Design: For the past, a focus of the review is relating the European perspective of the co-authors into a larger frame of areas in judgment and decision making within the last 50 years and beyond. Method/Results/Conclusions: For the present, scientific current developments will be structured as judgments from the most influential perspectives such as the economical, social cognition, ecological dynamics or cognitive approaches illustrating some milestones in research on judgment and decision-making in sports of today. For the future, potentials of the field will be structured based on theory, methodology and practical applications showcasing challenges for the next decades of research ahead of us

How to not induce SNAs: The insufficiency of directional force.

People respond faster to smaller numbers in their left space and to larger numbers in their right space. Here we argue that movements in space contribute to the formation of spatial-numerical associations (SNAs). We studied the impact of continuous isometric forces along the horizontal or vertical cardinal axes on SNAs while participants performed random number production and arithmetic verification tasks. Our results suggest that such isometric directional force do not suffice to induce SNAs. [Abstract copyright: Copyright: © 2023 Michirev et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

No impact of instructions and feedback on task integration in motor learning

This study examined the effect of instructions and feedback on the integration of two tasks. Task-integration of covarying tasks are thought to help dual-task performance. With complete task integration of covarying dual tasks, a dual-task becomes more like a single task and dual-task costs should be reduced as it is no longer conceptualized as a dual task. We covaried a tracking task with an auditory go/no-go task and tried to manipulate the extent of task-integration by using two different sets of instructions and feedback. A group receiving task-integration promoting instructions and feedback (N = 18) and a group receiving task-separation instructions and feedback (N = 20) trained a continuous tracking task. The tracking task covaried with the auditory go/no-go reaction time task because high-pitch sounds always occurred 250 ms before turns, which has been demonstrated to foster task integration before. The tracking task further contained a repeating segment to investigate implicit learning. Results showed that neither instructions, feedback, nor participants’ conceptualization of performing a single task vs. a dual task significantly affected task-integration. However, the covariation manipulation improved performance in both the tracking and the go/no-go task, exceeding performance in non-covarying and single tasks. We conclude that task-integration between covarying motor tasks is a robust phenomenon that is not influenced by instructions or feedback

How visual information influences dual-task driving and tracking

The study examined the impact of visual predictability on dual-task performance in driving and tracking tasks. Participants (N = 27) performed a simulated driving task and a pursuit tracking task. In either task, visual predictability was manipulated by systematically varying the amount of advance visual information: in the driving task, participants drove at night with low beam, at night with high beam, or in daylight; in the tracking task, participants saw a white line that specified the future target trajectory for 200, 400 or 800 ms. Concurrently with driving or tracking, participants performed an auditory task. They had to discriminate between two sounds and press a pedal upon hearing the higher sound. Results show that in general, visual predictability benefited driving and tracking; however, dual-task driving performance was best with highest visual predictability (daylight), dual-task tracking performance was best with medium visual predictability (400 ms). Braking/reaction times were higher in dual tasks compared to single tasks, but were unaffected by visual predictability, showing that its beneficial effects did not transfer to the auditory task. In both tasks, manual accuracy decreased around the moment the foot pressed the pedal, indicating interference between tasks. We, therefore, conclude that despite a general beneficial impact of predictability, the integration of visual information seems to be rather task specific, and that interference between driving and audiomotor tasks, and tracking and audiomotor tasks, seems comparable

Motional sidebands and direct measurement of the cooling rate in the resonance fluorescence of a single trapped ion

Resonance fluorescence of a single trapped ion is spectrally analyzed using a heterodyne technique. Motional sidebands due to the oscillation of the ion in the harmonic trap potential are observed in the fluorescence spectrum. From the width of the sidebands the cooling rate is obtained and found to be in agreement with the theoretical prediction.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Final version after minor changes, 1 figure replaced; to be published in PRL, July 10, 200

Optomechanical Cooling of a Macroscopic Oscillator by Homodyne Feedback

We propose a simple optomechanical model in which a mechanical oscillator quadrature could be "cooled" well below its equilibrium temperature by applying a suitable feedback to drive the orthogonal quadrature by means of the homodyne current of the radiation field used to probe its position.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, Figures available from authors, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Does training with 3D videos improve decision-making in team invasion sports?

© 2015 Taylor & Francis.We examined the effectiveness of video-based decision training in national youth handball teams. Extending previous research, we tested in Study 1 whether a three-dimensional (3D) video training group would outperform a two-dimensional (2D) group. In Study 2, a 3D training group was compared to a control group and a group trained with a traditional tactic board. In both studies, training duration was 6 weeks. Performance was measured in a pre- to post-retention design. The tests consisted of a decision-making task measuring quality of decisions (first and best option) and decision time (time for first and best option). The results of Study 1 showed learning effects and revealed that the 3D video group made faster first-option choices than the 2D group, but differences in the quality of options were not pronounced. The results of Study 2 revealed learning effects for both training groups compared to the control group, and faster choices in the 3D group compared to both other groups. Together, the results show that 3D video training is the most useful tool for improving choices in handball, but only in reference to decision time and not decision quality. We discuss the usefulness of a 3D video tool for training of decision-making skills outside the laboratory or gym