title: Motor expertise modulates the unconscious processing of human body postures.
abstract: Little is known about the cognitive background of unconscious visuomotor control of complex sports movements. Therefore, we investigated the extent to which novices and skilled high-jump athletes are able to identify visually presented body postures of the high jump unconsciously. We also asked whether or not the manner of processing differs (qualitatively or quantitatively) between these groups as a function of their motor expertise. A priming experiment with not consciously perceivable stimuli was designed to determine whether subliminal priming of movement phases (same vs. different movement phases) or temporal order (i.e. natural vs. reversed movement order) affects target processing. Participants had to decide which phase of the high jump (approach vs. flight phase) a target photograph was taken from. We found a main effect of temporal order for skilled athletes, that is, faster reaction times for prime-target pairs that reflected the natural movement order as opposed to the reversed movement order. This result indicates that temporal-order information pertaining to the domain of expertise plays a critical role in athletes' perceptual capacities. For novices, data analyses revealed an interaction between temporal order and movement phases. That is, only the reversed movement order of flight-approach pictures increased processing time. Taken together, the results suggest that the structure of cognitive movement representation modulates unconscious processing of movement pictures and points to a functional role of motor representations in visual perception.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Sport Science, Neurocognition and Action-Biomechanics-Research Group, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstraße 25, Bielefeld, Germany. iris.gueldenpenning@uni-bielefeld.de
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Güldenpenning
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Koester
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kunde
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weigelt
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schack
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult