Linking Perception to Action in Sport: Does superior visual perception explain why good players make it look easy?

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Our understanding of visual brain processing has made major advances in recent years and yet, we are still a long way from understanding how visual neural processing limits fine-motor control as we interact with the environment around us. Such neural processing limitations will be particularly important where humans operate at the limit of their motor abilities and one such area is in elite sport. Elite versus non-elite differences in anticipatory skills have consistently been reported. However, there are unsubstantiated claims that these differences stem from an underlying superiority in the visual processing capabilities of elites. Past research in sportspeople has relied upon the use of standard clinical measures of vision. We argue that these are not sufficient to test specific neural visual function, and propose tests that will probe visual brain processing in detail, in participants with skills levels ranging from novice to elite. Interestingly, associations between military flying performance and laboratory, but not clinical, tests of vision have previously been reported. Our visual measures will include speed and motion discrimination, and tests of stereovision, and time-to-contact and flow parsing for dynamic targets. We will relate performance on these tests to catching performance for which we will have success measures and kinematic data. We start by examining the link between visual and catching ability under optimal viewing conditions but will repeat both the sensory and visuo-motor testing under conditions of degraded vision if differences in visual ability between good and poor catchers are not apparent with full vision. To assess the generalizability of our findings we will compare visual performance with that of a generic (pointing) task. Our aim is to characterise the nature of the relationship between visual sensory and visuo-motor behaviour using elite sport as a vehicle for the assessment of more general neural perception and action links.

The most immediate impact of our results/conclusions is likely to be felt in the sport of cricket whose
players will have participated widely in our research, and this impact will be generated irrespective
of the outcome of our experiments. If we do reveal links between measures of vision and visuomotor
performance, the potential impact upon this sport could be that detailed assessments of visual
performance helps to predict those who have elite potential and, following on from this, that vision
training offers a means to further improve performance. The same could potentially apply to many
other sports, in particular, fast-moving/ball-sports where visual demands are, as in cricket, exacting.

If, on the other hand, it transpires we find no evidence that excellent vision contributes to sporting
excellence there will again be an important impact because there are many extant, but currently
unsubstantiated, claims that vision training offers a means for enhancing performance in high-level
sportspeople. Should it emerge that visual and sporting abilities are not linked, these claims would be
seriously challenged and the very basis for vision training in sport would be undermined.

As well as sport-related tasks, our experiments include the generic visuomotor task of pointing. Should
we find links between visual abilities and performance on the pointing task, there is potential for our
research impact to extend well beyond high-level sport. For example, our results could have substantial
impact in more everyday situations, for example in training/selecting individuals who would be suitable
to carry out fine-motor control tasks on a production line, or in scenarios where vision is below normal
or visuomotor control is reduced (e.g. by ageing). For these reasons, our potential stakeholders come
from a wide variety of backgrounds, both within and outside the domain of sport.

As well as presentation to scientific audiences (conference presentations and peer-reviewed
publications), we will disseminate our results to the clinical and sport-science communities, to our
stakeholders (real and potential) and to the general public. To disseminate our findings as widely as
possible, and to engage with actual and potential stakeholders we will:

(i) Present our results at national and international conferences on vision & neuroscience,
optometry/ophthalmology and sport science.
(ii) Publish our results in high-impact, peer-review journals, in particular journals with a multi-
disciplinary readership.
(iii) Post most the salient findings from our research on discussion forums/interest groups
frequented by vision scientists, sports scientists and clinicians.
(iv) Design a stand/display that will be used at public engagement events such as the British Science
Festival and at public events/open days held at our universities.
(v) Invite representatives from all stakeholder groups to the University of Bradford for a workshop
that will run in the final three months of the grant. The purpose will be showcase our results
and to explore potential for application and exploitation of our findings.
(vi) Host a workshop at a national sports science conference in the final year of the project. The aim
will be to ensure maximum exposure of our findings to the sports science community so as
to enhance the likelihood of application and exploitation.
(vii) Disseminate findings to under-graduate and post-graduate students on relevant study

programmes at our institutions so as to ensure that we fulfil our commitment to provide
research-led teaching.