Probing expert anticipation with the temporal occlusion paradigm: Experimental investigations of some methodological issues

Copyright @ 2005 Human KineticsTwo experiments were conducted to examine whether the conclusions drawn regarding the timing of anticipatory information pick-up from temporal occlusion studies are influenced by whether (a) the viewing period is of variable or fixed duration and (b) the task is a laboratory-based one with simple responses or a natural one requiring a coupled, interceptive movement response. Skilled and novice tennis players either made pencil-and-paper predictions of service direction (Experiment 1) or attempted to hit return strokes (Experiment 2) to tennis serves while their vision was temporally occluded in either a traditional progressive mode (where more information was revealed in each subsequent occlusion condition) or a moving window mode (where the visual display was only available for a fixed duration with this window shifted to different phases of the service action). Conclusions regarding the timing of information pick-up were generally consistent across display mode and across task setting lending support to the veracity and generalisability of findings regarding perceptual expertise in existing laboratory-based progressive temporal occlusion studies.This study is funded by the Australian Institute of Sport Tennis program

A novel training tool for batters to watch the ball

postprintConference of Science, Medicine & Coaching in Cricket 2010, Queensland, Australia, 1-3 June 2010. In Conference Proceedings, 2010, p. 32-3

Anticipation and transfer of expert pattern perception

Conference Theme: Meeting New Challenges and Bridging Cultural Gaps in Sport and Exercise PsychologyINTRODUCTION: When an observer views a moving object that is abruptly halted, the human perceptual system continues to extrapolate the object’s movement, predicting it’s likely pathway and misrepresenting the final stopping point as being further along the original trajectory (Freyd & Johnson, 1987). This extrapolation of the temporal features is typically referred to as “representational momentum” (Freyd, 1987; Freyd & Finke, 1984; Intraub, 2002). It has been suggested that this phenomenon occurs because participants anticipate the trajectory of the object and remember that object by integrating its predicted motion with perceptions of its implied acceleration and velocity (Didierjean & Marmèche, 2005; Finke, Freyd, & Shyi, 1986). This anticipatory trace is then stored in memory and can be accessed for subsequent recall and recognition …postprin

Increasing difficulty but not decreasing performance: maintained interception with increments in visual blur

Conference Theme: Meeting New Challenges and Bridging Cultural Gaps in Sport and Exercise PsychologyINTRODUCTION: In an earlier study on the relationship between visual blur and interceptive skill (Mann, Ho, De Souza, Watson, & Taylor, 2007) it was observed that interceptive performance can be maintained despite the introduction of significant refractive visual blur. Mann et al. found that contact lenses simulating legally-blind levels of short-sightedness were required (6/60 or 20/200 acuity) before any subjectively assessed decrease in skilled performance could be measured when intercepting balls pitched by a projection machine in the sport of cricket. Several of the participants reported a preference for taking part with low levels of visual blur as a means of focusing concentration and visual attention, raising the possibility that rather than decreasing performance, training with blurred vision may provide an opportunity to enhance skill acquisition. The aim of this study was to extend the protocol of Mann et …postprin

The neural correlates of regulating another person's emotions: an exploratory fMRI study

Studies investigating the neurophysiological basis of intrapersonal emotion regulation (control of one's own emotional experience) report that the frontal cortex exerts a modulatory effect on limbic structures such as the amygdala and insula. However, no imaging study to date has examined the neurophysiological processes involved in interpersonal emotion regulation, where the goal is explicitly to regulate another person's emotion. Twenty healthy participants (10 males) underwent fMRI while regulating their own or another person's emotions. Intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation tasks recruited an overlapping network of brain regions including bilateral lateral frontal cortex, pre-supplementary motor area, and left temporo-parietal junction. Activations unique to the interpersonal condition suggest that both affective (emotional simulation) and cognitive (mentalizing) aspects of empathy may be involved in the process of interpersonal emotion regulation. These findings provide an initial insight into the neural correlates of regulating another person's emotions and may be relevant to understanding mental health issues that involve problems with social interaction