46 research outputs found
Auditory Modeling in Sport: Theoretical Framework and Practical Applications
Visual models, i.e. live demonstrations or film clips, are widely used in sport as training instruments. Nevertheless, in recent years some research demonstrated that the well known property of sounds to effectively represent the temporal structure of a given task and to promote its accurate reproduction, is not valid only for simple motor gestures, but also for the complex movements that characterize sport performances. As a consequence, there is a growing interest towards the study and the implementation of auditory models as an alternative to the visual ones traditionally used. The present work begin by theoretically frameworking the use of auditory modeling in sport according to the Theory of Event Coding. Then, some of the practical applications of the two auditory modeling techniques, i.e. Movement Sonification and Second Order Biofeedback, are synthetically reviewed
The role of auditory and visual information in the discrimination of the speed of penalty kicks
Audio-based interventions in sport
In common practice, sports-perceptual interventions are mainly based on vision. However, research demonstrates that sporting performance can also be improved through the use of sounds, showing the relevance of the auditory channel to convey sports-related information, which can positively affect athletes\u2019 motor outcomes. This review examines the potential of audio-based interventions in sport. The relevant concepts are defined, a brief overview of the techniques based on vision is given and laboratory studies demonstrating the effectiveness of sounds in improving the execution of simple rhythmic motor tasks are reviewed. Subsequently, neurophysiological evidence of the influence of sounds on the motor regions of the brain is provided and different kinds of audio-based interventions, emphasising their methodological details and the effects of their application to specific sporting performances are described. Finally, recommendations for further research in this field, aimed both at maximizing the potential of audio-based interventions and their implementation at applied sporting contexts, are suggested
A complete season with attendance restrictions confirms the relevant contribution of spectators to home advantage and referee bias in association football
Due to the unfortunate pandemic situation, the phenomena of home advantage and referee bias in sports have recently received a particular research attention, especially in association football. In this regard, several studies were conducted on the last portion of the 2019-20 season: the majority of them suggests a reduction-but not the elimination-of the two phenomena, with some exceptions in which no reduction was found or, at the other extreme, the phenomena were not observed at all
Perception and Action in Complex Movements: The Emerging Relevance of Auditory Information
Recent studies explored the contribution of auditory information in ecological contexts to biological motion perception and its influence on movement execution. This work provides an overview of the most influential scientific contributions in this domain and analyzes the most recent findings, both in sport and motor rehabilitation. Overall, the literature indicates that ecological sounds associated with movements are relevant for perceiving some important features of sport movements. Auditory information is also relevant during performance execution, and can be used to create training protocols. Also, similarly auditory information can be used in clinical contexts to provide rhythmic information to enhance the efficacy of motor rehabilitation protocols. In conclusion, we can say that the role of ecological sounds of movements is examined in conveying complexity of information from a gestalt perspective
Walking and encoding heading bias
The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI linkPrevious studies demonstrated that physical movement enhanced spatial updating in described environments.
However, those movements were executed only after the encoding of the environment, minimally affecting the
development of the spatial representation. Thus, we investigated whether and how participants could benefit
from the execution of physical movement during the encoding of described environments, in terms of enhanced
spatial updating. Using the judgement of relative directions task, we compared the effects of walking both during
and after the description of the environment, and walking only after the description on spatial updating. Spatial
updating was evaluated in terms of accuracy and response times in different headings. We found that the distribution
of response times across Headings seemed not to be related to the physical movement executed,
whereas the distribution of accuracy scores seemed to significantly change with the action executed. Indeed,
when no movement occurred during the encoding of the environment, a preference for the learning heading was
found, which did not emerge when walking during encoding occurred. Therefore, the results seem to suggest
that physical movement during encoding supports the development of a heading-independent representation of
described environments, reducing the anchoring for a preferred heading in favor of a global representation
Contrasting a Misinterpretation of the Reverse Contrast
open access articleThe reverse contrast is a perceptual phenomenon in which the effect of the classical simultaneous lightness contrast is reversed. In classic simultaneous lightness contrast configurations, a gray surrounded by black is perceived lighter than an identical gray surrounded by white, but in the reverse contrast configurations, the perceptual outcome is the opposite: a gray surrounded by black appears darker than the same gray surrounded by white. The explanation provided for the reverse contrast (by different authors) is the belongingness of the gray targets to a more complex configuration. Different configurations show the occurrence of these phenomena; however, the factors determining this effect are not always the same. In particular, some configurations are based on both belongingness and assimilation, while one configuration is based only on belongingness. The evidence that different factors determine the reverse contrast is crucial for future research dealing with achromatic color perception and, in particular, with lightness induction phenomena
The effect of continuous artificial non-musical auditory stimulation on cardiorespiratory endurance and perceived exertion
This study aimed to investigate the effects of auditory stimulation with different frequency variations (increasing, decreasing, and constant) on performance, physiological parameters and perceived exertion in the shuttle run test. Twenty-four healthy sports science students participated in this experimental study and performed the shuttle run test under four different conditions: a) standard (as baseline); b) auditory stimulation with increasing frequency; c) auditory stimulation with decreasing frequency; and d) auditory stimulation with constant frequency. The results showed that maximal oxygen consumption in the decreasing-frequency condition was significantly higher than in any other condition and performance in the increasing-frequency condition was higher than that in the constant and standard conditions. The results also showed that in the initial and intermediate phases of the test, heart rate and perceived exertion were lower in both the increasing– and decreasing– frequency conditions than in the constant frequency and standard conditions. The results of the present study suggest that the use of auditory stimulation with decreasing frequency and increasing frequency can improve performance in endurance tasks. Future studies should better understand the different effects of these two types of stimulation and investigate whether they lead to long-term improvements
Spatial Descriptions Eliminate the Serial Position Effect
Aims: The present study aims to investigate the occurrence of the serial position effect in the recall of items verbally presented in three different contexts.
Background: The serial position effect has been studied with both verbal (e.g., words) and visuospatial (e.g., locations) stimuli but not with verbal-spatial stimuli
(i.e., spatial description of an environment). In particular, a spatial description of an environment has both spatial information and a meaningful
context.
Objective: The objective of the present study is to determine whether the use of different contexts (namely, a classic word list, a spatial description of a room,
and a narrative without spatial information) can alter the serial position effect.
Methods: Depending on the condition, participants were exposed to a) a list of objects, b) a spatial description of a room containing the same objects; c) a
narrative presenting the same objects in lack of spatial information. After this learning phase, participants performed a recognition task.
Results: The recognition task revealed different accuracy distributions in the three conditions. In particular, in the spatial description condition, the accuracy
distribution did not change across the item position.
Conclusion: This result is in line with previous studies with visuospatial stimuli. Thus, it seems that spatial descriptions are a particular kind of verbal stimuli,
which are encoded similarly to visuospatial stimuli. Overall, these outcomes support the idea that spatial descriptions elicit a spatial representation,
which enhances item retention and eliminates the serial position effect
A systematic investigation reveals that Ishihara et al.'s (2008) STEARC effect only emerges when time is directly assessed
The Spatial-TEmporal Association of Response Codes (STEARC) effect (Ishihara et al. in Cortex 44:454-461, 2008) is evidence that time is spatially coded along the horizontal axis. It consists in faster left-hand responses to early onset timing and faster right-hand responses to late onset timing. This effect has only been established using tasks that directly required to assess onset timing, while no studies investigated whether this association occurs automatically in the auditory modality. The current study investigated the occurrence of the STEARC effect by using a procedure similar to Ishihara and colleagues. Experiment 1 was a conceptual replication of the original study, in which participants directly discriminated the onset timing (early vs. late) of a target sound after listening to a sequence of auditory clicks. This experiment successfully replicated the STEARC effect and revealed that the onset timing is mapped categorically. In Experiments 2, 3a and 3b participants were asked to discriminate the timbre of the stimuli instead of directly assessing the onset timing. In these experiments, no STEARC effect was observed. This suggests that the auditory STEARC effect is only elicited when time is explicitly processed, thus questioning the automaticity of this phenomenon