The influence of analogy learning on decision-making in table tennis: Evidence from behavioural data

By J. Poolton, R. Masters, Jonathon P. Maxwell. 2006

138 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Objectives In sports it may be necessary for a performer to make a decision and execute a movement in close succession, or even concurrently. The manner in which a movement is controlled may impact on the degree to which the performer is able to combine decisions and movements effectively. Previous work has shown that if control of the movement has been acquired explicitly, with a high declarative knowledge content, dual-task conditions can be disruptive to performance of the movement. Previous work has also shown that, in contrast, if movement control is acquired by analogical instruction, with a low declarative knowledge content, motor performance is unaffected by dual-task conditions. It was, therefore, hypothesised that analogy learning will reduce the performance cost associated with processing motor responses while making high-complexity decisions. Methods Participants learnt to hit a table tennis topspin forehand using either a single analogical instruction or a set of written instructions (explicit learning). Motor performance was assessed when decisions about the direction in which to hit the ball were either low in complexity or high in complexity. Results Low-complexity decisions had no effect on motor performance in either condition. However, high-complexity decisions caused a relative performance deterioration in the Explicit condition, but not in the Analogy condition. Conclusions These findings extend the implicit motor learning literature by highlighting the role of analogy learning in the complex interaction between decision-making and movement control in sport.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Orthopedics and Sports Medicine

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/077ccda80435f6849d401b1f98e5abd27cd2a447

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In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

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Citations in the corpus

Recognition Within the Decision-Making Process: A Case Study of Expert Volleyball Players (2009, methodology): “The use of training experience reinforced the results obtained by Kibelé (2006), Poolton et al. (2006) and Raab (2002, 2003).”
Reinvestment, task complexity and decision making under pressure in basketball (2015, background): “Support for a working memory explanation was also found in the studies of Poolton et al. (2006) and Masters et al. (2008) on concurrent motor and decision making performance of implicit and explicit learners.”
Choking in sport: a review (2010, background): “Such findings have been replicated (e.g., Lam, Maxwell, & Masters, 2009; Law, Masters, Bray, Eves, & Bardswell, 2003; Poolton et al., 2006) and extended, for it has been established that skills which require highly complex decisions are also robust to pressure, if learnt through analogy (Masters,…”