Expert performance in soccer is underpinned by effective and efficient decision making skills. When facing an opponent, soccer players must be able to efficiently anticipate their upcoming actions drawing upon a variety of information sources in order to do so. The main sources of information are kinematic information (e.g. opponents’ postural cues) and contextual information (e.g. prior information about the opponent’s action tendencies). However, little is known about how expert soccer players integrate and use these sources of information to anticipate an opponent’s action and also how factors such as anxiety and task complexity affect this ability.
In a series of experiments, we are examining how expert soccer players integrate contextual information with kinematic information during a 2-versus-2 soccer video-anticipation task. In the first study, we assess the impact of contextual information that reveals opponents’ action tendencies (i.e. likelihood of dribble 70% and pass 30%), and kinematic information, on experts’ and novices’ gaze patterns and anticipation skill. In Study 2, we examine the impact of anxiety on the processing of such contextual information and the subsequent impact on performance. In Study 3, we manipulate the information available to the players and measure how experts’ anticipatory judgments alter as a function of the uncertainty associated with contextual information and kinematic information. In Study 4 we use electroencephalography (EEG) and retrospective self-reports, to assess the cognitive load associated with experts’ processing of contextual information. Finally, in Study 5 we explore how the costs and rewards related to the potential outcomes of the to-be-anticipated action moderate experts’ reliance on contextual information and bias their anticipatory judgements.
Our research provides novel insight into how experts integrate contextual information and kinematic information over time to inform their anticipatory judgments under various performance conditions. This insight will add to the body of literature that aims to develop an overarching theoretical framework for anticipation. Moreover, the project provides valuable knowledge for practitioners interested in training and testing anticipatory performance in soccer.
Publications
- Gredin, N. V., Bishop, D. T., Broadbent, D. P., Tucker, A., & Williams, A. M. (2018). Experts Integrate Contextual Priors and Environmental Information to Improve Anticipation Efficiency. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
- Broadbent, D. P., Gredin, N. V., Rye, J. L., Williams, A. M., & Bishop, D. T. (2018). The impact of contextual priors and anxiety on performance effectiveness and processing efficiency in anticipation. Cognition and Emotion.
- Gredin, N. V., Broadbent, D. P., Findon, J. L., Williams, A. M. & Bishop, D. T. (in review). Increased Task Load Impairs the Use of Contextual Priors during Anticipation – An EEG Study. Psychophysiology.
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Related Research Group(s)
Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience - Fundamental and applied research into brain function using techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), eye-tracking, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS), infrared thermography together with psychophysics and cognitive behavioural paradigms in health and disease.
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Project last modified 19/10/2021