Visual uncertainty influences the extent of an especial skill.
An especial skill in basketball emerges through highly repetitive practice at the 15 ft free throw line. The extent of the role vision plays in the emergence of an especial skill is unknown. We examined the especial skills of ten skilled basketball players in normal and blurred vision conditions where participants wore corrective lenses. As such, we selectively manipulated visual information without affecting the participants' explicit knowledge that they were shooting free throws. We found that shot efficiency was significantly lower in blurred vision conditions as expected, and that the concave shape of shot proficiency function in normal vision conditions became approximately linear in blurred vision conditions. By applying a recently proposed generalization model of especial skills, we suggest that the linearity of shot proficiency function reflects the participants' lesser dependence on especial skill in blurred vision conditions. The findings further characterize the role of visual context in the emergence of an especial skill.
Physical Activity, Sport and Recreation Research Focus Area, North-West University, South Africa; Department of Sport Didactics, University School of Physical Education in Wrocław, Poland. Electronic address: stachu.czyz@gmail.com.
S H
SH
Czyż
Department of Human Factors Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea.
O-S
OS
Kwon
Department of Econometrics and Operations Research, Cracow University of Economics, Poland.
J
J
Marzec
Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Poland.
P
P
Styrkowiec
Sport and Exercise Sciences Research Institute, Ulster University, Newtownabbey, United Kingdom.
G
G
Breslin
D000293:Adolescent; D001490:Basketball / Q000502:physiology*; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D003463:Cues; D004215:Distance Perception / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D035501:Uncertainty; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
Expert performance; Motor control; Practice specificity; Visual cues