The effect of task load, information reliability and interdependency on anticipation performance
2024 (English)In: Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, E-ISSN 2365-7464, Vol. 9, no 1, article id 22Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
In sport, coaches often explicitly provide athletes with stable contextual information related to opponent action preferences to enhance anticipation performance. This information can be dependent on, or independent of, dynamic contextual information that only emerges during the sequence of play (e.g. opponent positioning). The interdependency between contextual information sources, and the associated cognitive demands of integrating information sources during anticipation, has not yet been systematically examined. We used a temporal occlusion paradigm to alter the reliability of contextual and kinematic information during the early, mid- and final phases of a two-versus-two soccer anticipation task. A dual-task paradigm was incorporated to investigate the impact of task load on skilled soccer players’ ability to integrate information and update their judgements in each phase. Across conditions, participants received no contextual information (control) or stable contextual information (opponent preferences) that was dependent on, or independent of, dynamic contextual information (opponent positioning). As predicted, participants used reliable contextual and kinematic information to enhance anticipation. Further exploratory analysis suggested that increased task load detrimentally affected anticipation accuracy but only when both reliable contextual and kinematic information were available for integration in the final phase. This effect was observed irrespective of whether the stable contextual information was dependent on, or independent of, dynamic contextual information. Findings suggest that updating anticipatory judgements in the final phase of a sequence of play based on the integration of reliable contextual and kinematic information requires cognitive resources. © The Author(s) 2024.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
London: Springer, 2024. Vol. 9, no 1, article id 22
Keywords [en]
Cognitive load, Contextual information, Kinematic information, Perceptual-cognitive expertise, Sport
National Category
Psychology
Research subject
Health Innovation, M4HP
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-53294DOI: 10.1186/s41235-024-00548-8ISI: 001204740100001PubMedID: 38616234Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85190279887OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hh-53294DiVA, id: diva2:1854950
2024-04-292024-04-292024-06-11Bibliographically approved