Psychology Research Group
The psychology group research interests are focused in the areas of perceptual expertise and skill failure under stress. In perceptual expertise, our work focuses on identifying the information and neural correlates underpinning anticipation skill, and the efficacy of perceptual training protocols.
A particular interest we have is how the use of advance visual information impacts on performer susceptibility to deceptive movement. Our work to date shows that the expert advantage in judging their opponents’ intentions extends to the ability to discriminate between ‘genuine’ and deceptive movement. However, high-skilled performers remain susceptible to deception and this may have implications for perceptual training protocols.
Our work on ‘choking’ focuses on the reinvestment theory of skill failure. In particular, we are interested in the attentional processes underlying cognitive and motor skill failure, the efficacy of ‘priming’ to alleviate skill failure, and individual differences in susceptibility to poor decision making under stress. Recently, we have developed the Decision Specific Reinvestment Scale to examine choking in the decision making component of sport skills.
Staff Profiles
Highlighted Publications
DR. ROBIN JACKSON
1. Abernethy, B., Zawi, K., & Jackson, R. C. (2008). Expertise and attunement to kinematic constraints. Perception, 37, 931-948.2. Jackson, R. C., Abernethy, B., & Wernhart, S. (2009). Sensitivity to fine-grained and coarse visual information: The effect of blurring on anticipation skill. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 40, 461-475.
3. Jackson, R. C. & Beilock, S. L. (2008). Performance pressure and ‘paralysis by analysis’: Research and implications. In D. Farrow, J. Baker, & C. MacMahon (Eds.), Developing elite sports performers: Lessons from theory and practice (pp. 104-118). Routledge.
DR. KELLY ASHFORD
1. Ashford, K. J., & Jackson, R. C. (2010). Priming as a means of preventing skill failure under pressure. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 32, 518-536.DR. DANIEL BISHOP
1. Bishop, D. T., Karageorghis, C. I., & Kinrade, N. P. (2009). Effects of musically-induced emotions on choice reaction time performance. Sport Psychologist, 23, 59-76.2. Wright, M. J., Bishop, D. T., Jackson, R. C., & Abernethy, B. (2010). Functional MRI reveals expert-novice differences in brain activation during sport-related anticipation. NeuroReport, 21(2), 94-98.
3. Bishop, D. T., & Karageorghis, C. I. (2009). Managing pre-competitive emotions with music. In J. R. Bale & A. Bateman (Eds.), Sporting Sounds (pp. 59-84). London: Routledge.
DR. NOEL KINRADE
1. Kinrade, N., Jackson, R. C., Ashford, K. J. & Bishop, D. T. (2010). The development and validation of the decision-specific reinvestment scale. Journal of Sport Sciences, 28, 1127-1135.2. Kinrade, N., Jackson, R. C., & Ashford, K. J. (2010). Dispositional reinvestment and skill failure cognitive and motor tasks. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 11, 312-319.
