The aim of this study was to examine differences between experts and novices in a number of perceptual abilities. Three groups of elite athletes, 44 members of Greek national teams in basketball (n = 12), volleyball (n = 13), and water-polo (n = 19) were selected. Two groups of physical education students (ns = 18 and 21) were novices. The measured abilities were selected as the most important for an elite athlete by expert coaches in the three sports. The four most frequently selected abilities for each sport, according to the coaches' opinions, were finally assessed. Analysis showed that differences were fewer than expected. Basketball experts were better on prediction and selective attention. Volleyball experts performed better on perceptual speed, focused attention, prediction, and estimation of speed and direction of a moving object. Water-polo players had significantly better scores than the novices on decision-making, visual reaction time, and spatial orientation. It seems that the nature of each sport strongly influences the way perceptual abilities differentiate elite athletes from novices.
References
1.
AbernethyB. (1987) Selective attention in fast ball sports: II. Expert-novice differences. Australian Journal of Science Medicine in Sport, 19, 7–16.
2.
AbernethyB. (1989) Expert-novice differences in perception: how expert does the expert have to be?Canadian Journal of Sport Science, 14, 27–30.
3.
AbernethyB. (1993) Attention. In SingerR. N.MurpheyM., & TennanL. K. (Eds.), Handbook of research on sport psychology. New York: Macmillan. Pp. 127–170.
4.
AbernethyB.NeilR. J., & KoningP. V. (1993) What makes the expert sports performer better than the novice? The case of billiards and snooker. Sports Coach, 16(2), 31–37.
5.
AbernethyB., & RussellD. (1987) Expert-novice differences in an applied selective attention task. Journal of Sport Psychology, 9, 326–345.
6.
AckermanL. (1988) Determinants of individual differences during skill acquisition: cognitive abilities and information processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 117, 288–318.
7.
AllardF., & BurnettN. (1985) Skill in sport. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 39, 294–312.
8.
AllardF.GrahamS., & PaarsaluE. (1980) Perception in sport: basketball. Journal of Sport Psychology, 2, 14–21.
9.
AllardF., & StarkesL. L. (1980) Perception in sport: volleyball. Journal of Sport Psychology, 2, 22–33.
10.
AndersonJ. R. (1982) Acquisition of cognitive skill. Psychological Review, 89, 369–406.
11.
BorgeaudP., & AbernethyB. (1987) Skilled performance in volleyball defense. Journal of Sport Psychology, 9, 400–406.
12.
BrooksM.BoleachL., & MayhewJ. (1987) Relationship of specific and nonspecific variables to successful basketball performance among high school players. Perceptual and Motor Skills, A, 823–827.
13.
Cedrus Corporation. (1991) Super Lab, general purpose psychology testing software (Version 1.4, Macintosh ed.) Phoenix, AZ: Cedrus Corp.
ChiM. T. H. (1978) Knowledge structures and memory development. In SieglerR. (Ed.), Children's thinking: what develops?Hillsdale, NJErlbaum. Pp. 73–96.
16.
ChiM. T. H.FeltovichP., & GlaserR. (1981) Categorization and representation of physics problems by experts and novices. Cognitive Science. 5, 121–152.
17.
ChiM. T. H., & KoeskeR. D. (1983) Network representation of a child's dinosaur knowledge. Developmental psychology, 19, 29–39.
18.
ChiM. T. H., & ReesE. (1983) A learning framework for development. In ChiM. T. H. (Ed.), Trends in memory development research. New York: Karger. Pp. 77–107.
19.
ChiesiH. L.SpillichG. J., & VossJ. F. (1979) Acquisition of domain-related information in relation to high and low domain knowledge. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 18, 257–273.
20.
FleishmanE. A. (1967) Performance assessment based on an empirically derived task taxonomy. Human Factors, 9, 349–366.
21.
FrenchK. E., & ThomasJ. R. (1987) The relation of knowledge development in children's basketball performance. Journal of Sport Psychology, 9, 15–32.
22.
GarbinC.StaffordE., & LowryC. (1988) On the relationship between objective measures and performance in basketball: selecting teams of seventh grade girls. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 59, 14–20.
23.
GobboC., & ChiM. T. H. (1986) How knowledge is structured and used by expert and novice children. Cognitive Development, 80, 16–20.
24.
GouletC.BardC., & FleuryM. (1989) Expertise differences in preparing to return a tennis serve: a visual information processing approach. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 11, 382–398.
25.
KerrR.HughesK.BlaisC., & TowardJ. (1992) Knowledge and motor performance. Journal of Human Movement Studies, 22, 85–100.
26.
LindbergM. A. (1980) Is the knowledge base development a necessary and sufficient condition for memory development?Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 30, 401–410.
27.
McPhersonS. L., & ThomasJ. R. (1989) Relation to knowledge and performance in boys' tennis: age and expertise. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 48, 190–211.
28.
MichellA. A., & ChiM. T. H. (1986) Measuring knowledge within a domain. In NagyP. (Ed.), The representation of cognitive structures. Toronto: The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Pp. 85–115.
29.
NewellK. M., & BarclayC. R. (1982) Developing knowledge about action. In KelsoJ. A. S. & ClarkJ. E. (Eds.), The development of movement control and coordination. New York: Wiley. Pp. 175–212.
30.
PeverlyS. T. (1991) Problems with the knowledge-based explanation of memory and development. Review of Educational Research, 61, 71–93.
31.
RegnierG.SalmelaJ., & RussellS. (1993) Talent detection and development in sport. In SingerR. N.MurpheyM., & TennanL. K. (Eds.), Handbook of research on sport psychology. New York: Macmillan. Pp. 290–313.
32.
ReitmanJ. (1976) Skilled perception in GO: deducting memory structures from inter-response times. Cognitive Psychology, 8, 336–356.
33.
SalmelaJ. H., & FioritoP. (1978) Visual cues in ice hockey goaltending. Canadian Journal of Applied Sport Science, 4, 56–59.
StaffordJ. M. (1988) Expert-novice differences in resequensing as a function of knowledge base. Unpublished master's thesis, McGill Univer., Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
36.
StarkesJ. (1987) Skill in field hockey: the nature of the cognitive advantage. Journal of Sport Psychology, 9, 146–160.
37.
StarkesJ.AllardF.LindleyS., & O'ReillyK. (1994) Abilities and skill in basketball. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 25, 249–265.
38.
StarkesJ., & DeakinJ. (1984) Perception in sport: a cognitive approach to skilled performance. In StraubW. F. & WilliamsJ. M. (Eds.), Cognitive sport psychology. Lansing, NY: Sport Science Association. Pp. 115–128.
39.
VickersJ. M., (1986) The resequencing task: determining expert-novice differences in the organization of a movement sequence. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 57, 260–264.
40.
VickersJ. M. (1988) Knowledge structure of expert-novice gymnasts. Human Movement Science, 7, 47–72.
