The Perception & Action Podcast

A discussion with Sam Sommers, Associate Professor of Psychology from Tufts University and co-author of the recently released book, This is Your Brain on Sports: The Science of Underdogs, the Value of Rivalry, and What We Can Learn from the T-Shirt Cannon. We discuss topics including why great athletes don’t always make for great coaches, whether all kids should be getting trophies, and how sports...

How much does talking or texting on a smart phone impair driving performance?  How can we get drivers’ attention back on the road?  How can we effectively bring the sports field into the lab by creating representative task designs? Are coaches impairing skill acquisition by oversimplifying sports skills? ( Time 20:47 ) Links to articles discussed: http://about.att.com/story/smartphone_use_while_dr...

How important is nonverbal communication (e.g., hand gestures, high fives, using gaze) in sports? Why is a lot of the communication that occurs between athletes ineffective?   Articles/links: Intrateam communication and performance in doubles tennis Real-time communication during play: Analysis of team-mates’ talk and interaction Tactile Communication, Cooperation, and Performance: An Ethological...

A discussion with Dan McGehee, Director of the Transportation and Vehicle Safety Research Program in the Public Policy Center at the University of Iowa. We discuss how driver behavior in a simulator compares to a real car, using black box recordings to understand how drivers react just before they crash, using instrumented vehicles to help reduce accidents by teen drivers, the transition to automa...

News: How has research on the quiet eye manipulated the performer, environment and task constraints? What questions are still unanswered?  Does training a novice to have eye movements like an expert improve decision making?   Articles: The ‘Quiet Eye’ and Motor Performance: A Systematic Review Based on Newell’s Constraints-Led Model Perceptual Training in Beach Volleyball Defence: Different Effect...

Why do even the most elite athletes sometimes get completely fooled by a killer step-over move in soccer, head fake in football, or cross-over dribble in basketball? Where should an athlete look on their opponent’s body to avoid being deceived?  What brain areas are involved in the perception of deceptive actions?   Articles/links: Detecting Deception in Movement: The Case of the Side-Step in Rugb...

A discussion with Natasha Merat, Associate Professor in the Institute for Transport Studies at The University of Leeds. We discuss topics including detecting driving distraction, the effects of fatigue on driving and how to keep a driver in the loop with an automated vehicle. More information about my guest: http://www.its.leeds.ac.uk/people/n.merat https://www.linkedin.com/in/natasha-merat-879b78...

How much attention is required to drive effectively?  Is driving a manual transmission really done automatically?  How well do we remember the details of driving accidents? What is the best way to develop tactical creativity and divergent thinking in young athletes?  ( Time 20:35 )   Links to articles discussed: How automatic is manual gear shifting? Driving without awareness: The effects of pract...

Are athletes with color vision deficiencies less likely to make it to the elite levels of sport? If they do get there, will their color blindness effect their performance or determine which position they play?   Articles/links: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25372806/nfl-we-didnt-account-for-color-blindness-with-color-rush-jerseys Colour blind cricketers and snowballs Abnormal colour...

A discussion with Nick Reed, Academy Director at the Transport Research Lab in the UK. We discuss topics including ball catching, distracted driving, new in car technologies, the human factors and ethical challenges associated driverless vehicles, and the real world mobility lab TRL is using to study the future of transportation. More information about my guest: http://trl.co.uk/academy-future-vie...

News: What exactly does it mean to be in “the flow” as an athlete? Can we make it happen or do we just need to let it happen? Is it really true that skill acquisition is a single process that strives for low variability and is constrained by the speed-accuracy tradeoff?   Articles: Psychological states underlying excellent performance in professional golfers: “Letting it happen” vs. “making it hap...

Which is harder: hitting a baseball or cricket ball? Will Kieran Powell be successful in his attempt to transfer between the two sports?   Articles/links: The Perceptual Illusion of Baseball's Rising Fastball and Breaking Curveball Visual judgements and misjudgements in cricket and the art of flight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYMhT_wgBwE&index=108&list=PLCc9T1oeaK1548na0ELb-4Q6urloNqEjG http:...

A discussion with Keith Lohse, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology and Director of the Rehabilitation Informatics Lab at Auburn University. We discuss topics including internal vs external focus of attention, the role of engagement in learning, physical therapy and problems with data analysis in skill acquisition research. More information about my guest: https://sites.google.com/site/appliedmotor/...

How do drivers decide whether or not it is safe to make a turn in front of an oncoming car or overtake and pass a more slowly moving vehicle? Why are these situations so dangerous? Do athletes have a higher tolerance for pain than non-athletes? ( Time: 20:57 )   Motion aftereffect demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP_jYmbke14   Links to articles discussed: Processes and countermeasures in over...

What does the $2 million ruling against Lumosity mean for the future of brain training?  Should we give up on generalized perceptual-cognitive training for sport, or do we just need more evidence? Articles/Links: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2016/01/lumosity-pay-2-million-settle-ftc-deceptive-advertising-charges http://ww2.kqed.org/futureofyou/2016/01/21/lumosity-ceo-admits-brain...

A discussion with Cathy Craig, Professor of Perception & Action Psychology at Queen’s University Belfast. We discuss topics including understanding and improvement movement in areas including pre-mature infants, soccer and Parkinson’s disease; how rugby players deceive their opponent; developing VR systems for training and research; and how we can learn a lot about perception from studying the rar...

News: How is coordination achieved in team sports?  Does drawing plays on a white board really transfer to on field performance? Is telling a tennis player to “throw their racquet at the ball” a good way to teach serving?   Articles: Cognitive Representations and Cognitive Processing of Team-Specific Tactics in Soccer A kinematic comparison of the overhand throw and tennis serve in tennis players:...

A look at some cycling science from a perceptual-motor control perspective. Where does a cyclist look when going around a curve?  What control strategies do young cyclists use? Does seat height effect steering ability? Articles: Cycling around a Curve: The Effect of Cycling Speed on Steering and Gaze Behavior Visual guidance during bicycle steering through narrow lanes: a study in children Bicycle...

A discussion with Nancy Cooke, Professor of Human Systems Engineering at Arizona State University. We discuss topics including how individual and team cognition differ, Nancy’s theory of Interactive Team Cognition, how teamwork is acquired, and how team performance changes under pressure. More information about my guest: http://poly.engineering.asu.edu/directory/nancy-cooke/ https://www.researchga...

How does a driver know when to start braking and whether they are braking hard enough to avoid a collision? Where do we look when we steer around a curve?  Do race car drivers look somewhere different? Why is it so hard to hit (and throw!) a knuckleball? ( Time: 18:36)   Links to articles discussed: A theory of visual control of braking based on information about time-to-collision Time-to-contact...

Does ball color effect performance in sports? Do cricket batsman have the right to complain about pink balls and baseball batters about the brief experiment with orange ones?   Articles/links: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/oct/27/to-see-or-not-to-see-australian-cricket-divided-over-pink-ball-test Effect of ball color on hitting performance by college softball players Effect of softbal...

A discussion with Noel Rousseau, PGA golf professional, coach and developer of the Everyday Golf Coach app. We discuss automaticity, how coaching needs to be tailored to individual players, handling pressure, and how sports psychology is viewed in golf. More information about my guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-noel-rousseau-13796a15 http://www.everydaygolfcoach.com/about-everyday-golf-coach....

News: Does training using the 3D multiple object tracking (Neurotracker) system transfer to on-field performance in soccer?  How good are baggage screeners at detecting threatening object? How does their performance depend on passenger volume and shift length?   Articles/links: 3D-Multiple Object Tracking training task improves passing decision-making accuracy in soccer players When and Why Threat...

A look at some infamous movie training scenes from a skill acquisition and motor learning perspective. Awards for best use of contextual inference, best constraints led-approach, best use of key performance indicators and more! We’re gonna need a montage, montage!   Training Montages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVY8SbQGW-Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SUzcDUERLo https://www.youtube.com/wa...

A discussion with Amy Whitehead, Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching and Physical Education, at Liverpool John Moores University. We discuss her new study looking at the effect of pressure on the thought processes of golfers, using the Think Aloud protocol to investigate and improve sports performance, and what it’s like to work as an applied sports psychologist.   More information about my guest:...