Choice Reaction Time What effect does choice have on reaction time? Why? How can knowledge of reaction time allow performers to improve? Present as wide a range of stimuli/ movements to your opponent as possible. This prevents SRT and therefore lengthens reaction time and decreases the probability of successful anticipation. Can you give any examples in sport?
Hicks Law revisited Can you draw the graph to illustrate Hicks Law? What does Hicks Law state? How does this implicate sporting situations?
Psychological Refractory Period (PRP) What is PRP? ‘The delay in response to the second of two closely linked stimuli’ How many stimuli can the brain deal with at any one time? What is single channel hypothesis? This states that when handling stimuli from the environment the brain can deal with only one stimuli at a time.
Single Channel Hypothesis continued…… The brain is thought of as a single channel organ. It can only deal with one piece of information at a time, which HAS to be processed before the next stimulus can be dealt with. When it receives several pieces in rapid succession a ‘bottleneck’ is formed causing a slowing of the decision making process
The Single Channel Hypothesis Input Input Central processing Output/response
The PRP If a second stimulus follows quite closely behind the first reaction time is slowed because of the increased information processing time needed.
PRP in sport What are the practical implications to a sports performer? Give two examples in sport of how this can benefit a sports performer.
Anticipation What does anticipation rely on? ‘The performer attempts to predict the actions of the opponent’ What are the advantages and disadvantages of anticipating an opponents response? There are two forms of anticipation.
Spatial Anticipation Involves the performer predicting what will happen. For example the badminton player detects the slight difference in the shot action and is expecting the drop shot. Can you give another example in sport?
Temporal anticipation Involves the performer predicting when the action will happen. For example a football defender tries to guess when the attacker will actually pass the ball. Can you give another example in sport?