Priming as a means of preventing skill failure under pressure

Copyright @ 2010 Human KineticsThe present study examined the effectiveness of a priming paradigm in alleviating skill failure under stress. The priming intervention took the form of a scrambled sentence task. Experiment 1: Thirty-four skilled field-hockey players performed a dribbling task in low-and high-pressure situations under single task, skill-focused, and priming conditions. Results revealed a significant increase in performance time from low to high pressure. In addition, performance in the priming condition was significantly better than in the control and skill-focused conditions. Experiment 2: Thirty skilled field-hockey players completed the same dribbling task as in Experiment 1; however, in addition to the control and skill-focused conditions, participants were allocated to either a positive, neutral, or negative priming condition. Results revealed significant improvements in performance time from the skill focus to the control to the priming condition for the positive and neutral groups. For the negative group, times were significantly slower in the priming condition. Results are discussed in terms of utilizing priming in a sporting context

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

Sensitivity to fine-grained and coarse visual information: The effect of blurring on anticipation skill

Copyright @ 2009 Edizione l PozziWe examined skilled tennis players’ ability to perceive fine and coarse information by assessing their ability to predict serve direction under three levels of visual blur. A temporal occlusion design was used in which skilled players viewed serves struck by two players that were occluded at one of four points relative to ball-racquet impact (-320ms, -160ms, 0ms, +160ms) and shown with one of three levels of blur (no blur, 20% blur, 40% blur). Using a within-task criterion to establish good and poor anticipators, the results revealed a significant interaction between anticipation skill and level of blur. Anticipation skill was significantly disrupted in the ‘20% blur’ condition; however, judgment accuracy of both groups then improved in the ‘40% blur’ condition while confidence in judgments declined. We conclude that there is evidence for processing of coarse configural information but that anticipation skill in this task was primarily driven by perception of fine-grained information.This research was supported by a University of Hong Kong Seed Funding for Basic Research grant awarded to the second author

Modeling the relationship between self-consciousness and competition anxiety

The present study examined the relationship between self-reported levels of self-consciousness and competition anxiety among a sample of sportspeople (N = 519). We hypothesized that self-consciousness would exhibit a positive linear relationship with competition anxiety via the mediator of social anxiety and that this relationship would be moderated by gender. Path analysis using robust maximum likelihood estimator techniques in EQS were employed to examine model fit. Examination of fit indexes demonstrated that the fit of the baseline a priori model was good (Robust CFI = .98, SRMR = .06). Multigroup analyses assessing invariance across gender were conducted by imposing increasingly strict equality constraints. The models displayed good fit (CFI = .96, SRMR = .08); however, inspection of the Lagrange multiplier test and then single sample models revealed the path between social anxiety and somatic anxiety was stronger for females. We concluded that the relationship between self-consciousness and competition anxiety is mediated by the experience of social anxiety; however, the present findings refute the hypothesis that the relationship is moderated by gender

Attentional focus, dispositional reinvestment, and skilled motor performance under pressure

Copyright @ 2006 Human KineticsAttentional processes governing skilled motor behavior were examined in two studies. In Experiment 1, field hockey players performed a dribbling task under single-task, dual-task, and skill-focused conditions under both low and high pressure situations. In Experiment 2, skilled soccer players performed a dribbling task under single-task, skill-focused, and process-goal conditions, again under low and high pressure situations. Results replicated recent findings regarding the detrimental effect of skill-focused attention and the facilitative effect of dual-task conditions on skilled performance. In addition, focusing on movement related process goals was found to adversely affect performance. Support for the predictive validity of the Reinvestment Scale was also found, with high reinvesters displaying greater susceptibility to skill failure under pressure. Results were consistent with explicit monitoring theories of choking and are further discussed in light of the conceptual distinction between explicit monitoring and reinvestment of conscious control

Priming to promote fluent motor skill execution: Exploring attentional demands

The effect of priming on the speed and accuracy of skilled performance and on a probe-reaction time task designed to measure residual attentional capacity, was assessed. Twenty-four skilled soccer players completed a dribbling task under three prime conditions (fluency, skill-focus, and neutral) and a control condition. Results revealed changes in trial completion time and secondary task performance in line with successfully priming autonomous and skill-focused attention. Retention test data for task completion time and probe-reaction time indicated a linear decrease in the priming effect such that the effect was nonsignificant after 30 min. Results provide further support for the efficacy of priming and provide the first evidence of concurrent changes in attentional demands, consistent with promoting or disrupting automatic skill execution

Cortical fMRI activation to opponents' body kinematics in sport-related anticipation: Expert-novice differences with normal and point-light video

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Neuroscience Letters. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2011 Elsevier B.V.Badminton players of varying skill levels viewed normal and point-light video clips of opponents striking the shuttle towards the viewer; their task was to predict in which quadrant of the court the shuttle would land. In a whole-brain fMRI analysis we identified bilateral cortical networks sensitive to the anticipation task relative to control stimuli. This network is more extensive and localised than previously reported. Voxel clusters responding more strongly in experts than novices were associated with all task-sensitive areas, whereas voxels responding more strongly in novices were found outside these areas. Task-sensitive areas for normal and point-light video were very similar, whereas early visual areas responded differentially, indicating the primacy of kinematic information for sport-related anticipation.Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Chin

Ritualized behavior in sport

Open Peer Commentary on main article "Why ritualized behavior? Precaution Systems and action parsing in developmental, pathological and cultural rituals"We consider evidence for ritualized behavior in the sporting domain, noting that such behavior appears commonplace both before a competitive encounter and as part of pre-performance routines. The specific times when ritualized behaviors are displayed support the supposition that they provide temporary relief from pre-competition anxiety and act as thought suppressors in the moments preceding skill execution. © 2007 Cambridge University Press.published_or_final_versio

Advances in the inspection of unpiggable pipelines

The field of in-pipe robotics covers a vast and varied number of approaches to the inspection of pipelines with robots specialising in pipes ranging anywhere from 10 mm to 1200 mm in diameter. Many of these developed systems focus on overcoming in-pipe obstacles such as T-sections and elbows, as a result important aspects of exploration are treated as sub-systems, namely shape adaptability. One of the most prevalent methods of hybridised locomotion today is wall-pressing; generating traction using the encompassing pipe walls. A review of wall-pressing systems has been performed, covering the different approaches taken since their introduction. The advantages and disadvantages of these systems is discussed as well as their effectiveness in the inspection of networks with highly varying pipe diameters. When compared to unconventional in-pipe robotic techniques, traditional full-bore wall-pressing robots were found to be at a disadvantage

Functional imaging of cortical responses in expert and novice badminton players while predicting the direction of a badminton stroke

This journal suppl. entitled: Special Issue: 15th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain MappingINTRODUCTION: Abernethy et al. (2008) showed that expert badminton players can use the kinematic information of the opponent's body movement to predict the direction of a stroke. The purpose of the present study was to compare the brain activity of expert and novice badminton players while carrying out a similar anticipation task. METHODS: In a block design fMRI study, participants viewed 2 s video displays of an opposing player, and pressed a button to indicate which of four possible court positions a stroke was directed. Individual trials were occluded either 80 ms before or 80ms after the ...postprin