Expertise and Attunement to Kinematic Constraints

Abstract

Three experiments were undertaken to ascertain the extent to which expertise in natural anticipatory tasks is characterised by superior attunement to the biomechanical (kinematic) constraints of the movement pattern being observed. Twelve world-class and twelve non-expert badminton players were required to predict the depth of an opponent's stroke from either video displays or point-light displays of the opposing player's hitting action. The information available within the displays was manipulated through temporal and/or spatial occlusion. Consistent with predictions that can be derived from the constraint-attunement hypothesis (Vicente and Wang, 1998 Psychological Review 105 33-57), experts showed: (i) an unchanged pattern of information pick-up when the display was reduced from video to point-light and only kinematic information was available; (ii) superior information pick-up from kinematic features that non-experts could use; and (iii) attunement to early kinematic information from the lower body to which non-experts were not sensitive. Consistent with predictions that can be derived from a common-coding perspective (Prinz, 1997 European Journal of Cognitive Psychology 9 129-154), the anticipation of stroke depth was facilitated more for experts than non-experts when the perceptual display provided linked segment information reminiscent of the cross-segmental torque transfers that occur during expert movement production.

The coupling between gaze behavior and opponent kinematics during anticipation of badminton shots

“…During the preparation phase of the badminton serve there were no differences between long and short serves for distance covered at all locations, except for the right elbow. Previously, researchers examining the kinematic cues used during anticipation (Abernethy & Russell, 1987;Abernethy et al, 2008) have suggested this information is available throughout the movement of the opponent, whereas our data show it is not. As predicted, during the execution phase of the movement, the kinematic locations of the arm, wrist, and racket discriminated between the two serve-types.…”

“…However, the expert players had significantly longer fixation durations and final fixations compared to the novice players, supporting previous research. Their average final fixation of 1700 ms corresponded well with the duration of the execution phase, which was an average of 1900 ms. Data support previous research on moderately consistent and controlled tasks (Abernethy et al, 2008;Williams et al, 2002) showing fixations of a longer duration are indicative of expert performance. It is possible that the longer fixation duration allowed the expert group more time to extract information from the kinematic cues emanating from the opponent's body.…”

Do experts see it in slow motion? Altered timing of action simulation uncovers domain-specific perceptual processing in expert athletes

“…One could imagine that basketball players have extensive visual expertise for ball flight trajectories. Or is it rather a general, sport-unspecific expertise to predict physical parameters of curves… # Our outperformance prediction was only formulated for body kinematics, given the evidence (e.g., Abernethy et al, 2008; Makris & Urgesi, 2015; Urgesi et al, 2012) of superior ability of athletes to perceive body kinematics and simulate observed actions in sport sequences that they are familiar with. Nevertheless, we agree with the reviewer that an outperformance concerning the ball flight trajectory was a plausible prediction, according to her/his suggestion (i.e., extensive visual expertise for ball flight trajectories and/or sport-unspecific expertise to predict physical parameters of curves).…”

The multiform motor cortical output: Kinematic, predictive and response coding

“…For example, by observing how a person throws a dart at a dartboard, an observer can predict where the dart will land (Knoblich & Flach, 2001). An observer can likewise anticipate the type of tennis or volleyball serve that is about to be made (Abernethy, Zawi, & Jackson, 2008), predict the success of a basketball shot (Aglioti et al, 2008), foresee if a player is about to launch a real or a mimic throw (Sebanz & Shiffrar, 2009), and forecast if an action heralds a competitive or cooperative interaction (Sartori, Becchio, & Castiello, 2011a). When observing action sequences, infants as well as adults show anticipatory fixations to the target areas of the displayed actions (Hunnius & Bekkering, 2010).…”