Probing expert anticipation with the temporal occlusion paradigm: experimental investigations of some methodological issues.
Two 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.
Farrow
Damian
D
Athlete and Coach Services, Australian Institute of Sport, Belconnen, ACT, Australia.
Abernethy
Bruce
B
Jackson
Robin C
RC
D000328:Adult; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011361:Professional Competence; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012683:Sensory Deprivation / Q000502:physiology; D013715:Tennis; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*