2134/26770
Colm P. Murphy
Colm P.
Murphy
Robin Jackson
Robin
Jackson
A. Mark Williams
A. Mark
Williams
The role of contextual information during skilled anticipation
Loughborough University
2017
Expertise
Perceptual-cognitive skill
Context
Awareness
Cognition
Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified
2017-09-29 15:26:02
Journal contribution
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/The_role_of_contextual_information_during_skilled_anticipation/9624356
In dynamic, temporally-constrained tasks, individuals often need to anticipate what will happen next prior to information becoming available within the environment. In such situations, the availability of contextual information can facilitate anticipation, often in conjunction with postural information. While many researchers have identified the specific sources of postural information facilitating anticipation, few have investigated the specific sources of contextual information employed. In two experiments, we presented skilled and less-skilled tennis players with animations of rallies from real matches that omitted access to postural information from the opponent, constraining participants to anticipate based on contextual information alone. In Experiment 1, participants anticipated the outcome of an opponent’s shot under three conditions in which the sequence length (i.e., number of shots in
a rally) preceding the same occluded shot was varied. Participants anticipated shot direction
more accurately when the preceding shot sequence was presented than not. In Experiment 2,
we presented animations that depicted the ball, the players, or both, in either dynamic or still
form. Those conditions in which only the ball was depicted yielded the lowest response accuracy scores. It appears that information from the player and ball motion is required to provide the context under which skilled performers can consciously pick up and utilise information to anticipate more accurately than their less-skilled counterparts.