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Perceptual load in sport and the heuristic value of the perceptual load paradigm in examining expertise-related perceptual-cognitive adaptations

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Abstract

In two experiments, we transferred perceptual load theory to the dynamic field of team sports and tested the predictions derived from the theory using a novel task and stimuli. We tested a group of college students (N = 33) and a group of expert team sport players (N = 32) on a general perceptual load task and a complex, soccer-specific perceptual load task in order to extend the understanding of the applicability of perceptual load theory and further investigate whether distractor interference may differ between the groups, as the sport-specific processing task may not exhaust the processing capacity of the expert participants. In both, the general and the specific task, the pattern of results supported perceptual load theory and demonstrates that the predictions of the theory also transfer to more complex, unstructured situations. Further, perceptual load was the only determinant of distractor processing, as we neither found expertise effects in the general perceptual load task nor the sport-specific task. We discuss the heuristic utility of using response-competition paradigms for studying both general and domain-specific perceptual-cognitive adaptations.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks go to Bente Wegner for helping with the data collection in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cognitive and Team/Racket Sport Research, German Sport University, Cologne, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933, Cologne, Germany

    Philip Furley & Daniel Memmert

  2. Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Simone Schmid

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  1. Philip Furley
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  2. Daniel Memmert
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  3. Simone Schmid
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Correspondence to Philip Furley.

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Furley, P., Memmert, D. & Schmid, S. Perceptual load in sport and the heuristic value of the perceptual load paradigm in examining expertise-related perceptual-cognitive adaptations. Cogn Process 14, 31–42 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-012-0529-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-012-0529-x

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