Applied Cognitive Psychology, Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 432–442 (2011)
Published online 29 June 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/acp.1710
Perceptual-Cognitive Expertise in Sport and its Acquisition: Implications for
Applied Cognitive Psychology
A. MARK WILLIAMS1,2*, PAUL R. FORD2, DAVID W. ECCLES3 and PAUL WARD3
1
Brain and Mind Research Institute, and Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Australia
Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
3
Learning Systems Institute, and Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, Florida State University, USA
4
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences, Michigan Technological University, USA
2
Summary: We review contemporary research on perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport and consider implications for those
working in the field of applied cognitive psychology. We identify the important perceptual-cognitive skills that facilitate
anticipation in sport and illustrate how these skills interact in a dynamic manner during performance. We also highlight our
current understanding of how these skills are acquired and consider the extent to which the underlying processes are specific to a
particular domain and role within that domain. Next, we briefly review recent attempts to facilitate the acquisition of perceptualcognitive expertise using simulation training coupled with instruction and feedback on task performance. Finally, we discuss how
research on elite athletes can help inform applied cognitive psychologists who are interested in capturing and enhancing
perceptual-cognitive expertise across various domains. Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In recent years there has been considerable interest in
exploring the nature of expert performance across domains
(e.g. Ericsson, Hoffman, Charness, & Feltovich, 2006;
Ericsson & Williams, 2007). For example, scientists with an
interest in sport have analysed the perceptual-cognitive skills
underpinning anticipation in this domain and identified how
these processes are acquired through prolonged engagement
in practice (for reviews, see Hodges, Huys, & Starkes, 2007;
Williams & Ford, 2008; Williams & Ward, 2007). The
scientific study of skill acquisition has a long history in
experimental psychology, dating back to the early studies of
Bryan and Harter (1899). In more recent times, Poulton
(1957) was the first to systematically discriminate between
different types of anticipation judgements using experimental methods common to this discipline. The scientific study of
anticipation as a field of inquiry in its own right in sport
psychology has a much shorter history, emerging primarily
in 1970s (for a historical overview, see Williams, Davids, &
Williams, 1999). The majority of sport psychologists work in
multi-disciplinary departments where research in traditional
discipline areas, such as physiology, psychology, and
biomechanics, often develops somewhat independently of
academic endeavour within the main disciplines themselves.
The empirical findings that have been reported on anticipation in the field of sport psychology could therefore
contribute to the generation of new knowledge on this topic
in the parent discipline area, and particularly in applied
cognitive psychology.
Sport offers a relatively unique environment where the
limits of human achievement are challenged continually.
This environment provides a fertile context to identify the
essential skills and attributes for performance as well as
the underlying processes that discriminate individuals with
*Correspondence to: A. Mark Williams, Exercise and Sports Science,
Faculty of Health Sciences, Cumberland Campus, The University of Sydney,
East Street Lidcombe, NSW, Australia, 2141.
E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
varying levels of performance. Such knowledge provides a
basis for determining what types of practice activities are
likely to lead to the acquisition of skill across domains and,
potentially, why some individuals improve at different rates
to others or achieve much higher performance levels
(Ericsson, 2006). This information may subsequently be
used to evaluate the applicability of general theories of
expertise and skill acquisition, to design appropriate
interventions for performance enhancement, and to identify
factors that contribute to enhancing the processes of
talent search and talent development across different
fields of human endeavour (Ericsson & Ward, 2007;
Williams & Ericsson, 2005; Williams, Ericsson, Ward, &
Eccles, 2008).
In this review paper, we synthesise recent research on
perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport and consider
potential implications for those working within the field
of applied cognitive psychology. We focus exclusively on
research that has attempted to identify the perceptual and
cognitive processes underpinning anticipation. The ability
to anticipate is crucial to performance in sport as well as
in many other domains such as military combat, law
enforcement, and everyday tasks such as driving a car.
These situations require performers to determine the
intentions of others and to formulate an appropriate
response often under severe temporal constraint. In fast
ball sports such as tennis, the time taken for the ball to travel
from one opponent to the other is often shorter than the
combined sum of an athlete’s reaction time and movement
time, implying the need to initiate a response ahead of the
opponent actually striking the ball (Williams et al., 1999).
Since most sports, and in particular racket sports and team
ball games, require athletes to process information in a
time-constrained environment, it is necessary for performers to adapt to the unique constraints of the task by
acquiring knowledge structures and cognitive processes
that allow them to anticipate. The ability to anticipate
allows athletes additional time to formulate and execute an
Expertise and expert performance
appropriate response. We document attempts to ascertain
how anticipation and the processes underlying it are
acquired in sport. Moreover, we outline efforts to facilitate
the acquisition of such processes using simulation-based
training. Our aim is to illustrate using specific examples
how research on perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport can
help identify some of the general mechanisms and
adaptations that facilitate anticipation in other domains,
thereby contributing more broadly to the field of applied
cognitive psychology.
IDENTIFYING THE PROCESSES UNDERPINNING
ANTICIPATION
Over recent decades, there have been concerted attempts to
identify the specific skills and processes involved when
making anticipation judgements in sport settings. Some
important perceptual-cognitive skills have been identified
that relate to how athletes recognise and use their
expectations of future events to guide their decisions and
actions. In this section, we briefly review this literature and
consider how the importance of these perceptual-cognitive
skills may vary as a function of the task constraints.
Recognising and using task-relevant, postural
information provided by others
A substantial body of research highlights the ability of expert
athletes to anticipate the outcome of a situation accurately
based on the postural movements of their opponent/s (for
detailed reviews, see Hodges et al., 2007; Williams & Ward,
2007). In fast ball sports, this ability enables athletes to
prepare and execute their own response in order to counter
the intentions of opponents. The temporal and spatial
occlusion paradigms have been used to evaluate individual
differences in the ability to recognise and use postural cues
(Müller, Abernethy, & Farrow, 2006; Williams & Davids,
1998). An opponent is filmed from a first-person perspective
performing a given action (e.g. tennis serve) and these images
are then projected to participants life-size on a large screen.
Participants are required to anticipate their opponent’s action
or the outcome of the situation either by responding verbally,
using pen-and-paper or physically (e.g. by performing an
action in response to the stimuli presented). In the temporal
occlusion paradigm, the film sequences are occluded at
varying time periods relative to a critical event (e.g. ball-racket
contact during the tennis serve). In the spatial occlusion
paradigm, information is removed by occluding part of the
scene while still presenting the remainder of the stimulus (e.g.
the opponent’s arm or racket is occluded). The relative
decrement in performance on the occluded conditions relative
to a control condition involving the occlusion of an irrelevant
information source provides an indication of the relative
importance of each source of information.
Alternative approaches have been used that permit the
specific postural cues on which this type of anticipation is
based to be identified. For instance, researchers have used
liquid crystal glasses to occlude vision in the actual
performance setting (e.g. Müller & Abernethy, 2006;
Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
433
Starkes, Edwards, Dissanayale, & Dunn, 1995) or a headmounted, corneal reflection system to record visual search
behaviours either in situ or when viewing film-based
simulations of the performance context. A large amount
of research has been conducted examining the visual search
behaviours of athletes during performance. In many sport
tasks, expert athletes have been shown to use qualitatively
different visual behaviours when extracting information
from the performance environment compared to less-skilled
athletes. It is beyond the scope of this paper to summarise
this literature, but interested readers are directed elsewhere to
a number of detailed reviews (Williams et al., 1999; Williams
& Ward, 2007; Williams, Janelle, & Davids, 2004).
Several researchers have proposed that the effective pick
up of relative motion is an essential component of
anticipation in fast ball sports (e.g. Abernethy, Gill, Parks,
& Packer, 2001; Ward, Williams, & Bennett, 2002). The
argument is that performers anticipate the actions of an
opponent based on their perception of the relative motion
between specific bodily features, rather than via the
extraction of information from an isolated area/cue or more
superficial features. In order to address this issue, researchers
have extended prior research (e.g. Cutting & Proffitt, 1982)
by examining skill-based differences in the ability to
anticipate the outcome of an opponent’s actions when
presented as biological motion or point-light displays (e.g.
Ward et al., 2002). To create the point light stimuli, the
motions of real players performing an action are captured
using optoelectronic motion analysis system or digitised
from filmed images. Skilled performers are able to maintain
an advantage over novices in anticipating the outcome
based on their more accurate interpretation of the motion
information presented in the display.
Williams and colleagues (e.g. Cañal-Bruland & Williams,
2010; Huys, Smeeton, Hodges, Beek, & Williams, 2008;
Williams, Huys, Cañal-Bruland, & Hagemann, 2009) have
extended this approach by manipulating the dynamical
information presented to participants. In addition to
presenting tennis shots in point light form, these authors
manipulated the dynamical properties of the action by
occluding or neutralizing the kinematics at a selected body
region, or by interchanging them with those from strokes
played to the opposite side of the court. The primary aim of
this research was to examine the importance of subtle
changes in dynamical information when attempting to
anticipate different types of actions.
While information from the end-effector (i.e. arm and
racket) is often sufficient to accurately anticipate shot
direction in tennis, skilled tennis players are able to extract
helpful information from other areas of the body such as the
shoulders, trunk and legs (Huys et al., 2009; Cañal-Bruland
& Williams, 2010). It appears that skilled performers rely on
a more ‘global’ rather than ‘local’ perceptual strategy when
perceiving the actions of others. Skilled performers are able
to extract relevant information from several areas simultaneously, implying a degree of redundancy or flexibility in
the perceptual strategy employed. A more global perceptual
strategy may make experts less prone to attempts by
opponents to deceive or disguise their intentions (Jackson,
Warren, & Abernethy, 2006; Williams et al., 2009).
Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 432–442 (2011)
434
A. Mark Williams et al.
RECOGNISING FAMILIARITY AND STRUCTURE
IN THE PATTERNS EMPLOYED BY OTHERS
The ability to recognise familiarity and structure within the
performance environment was originally tested in the domain
of chess using the classical recall and recognition paradigms
(e.g. Chase & Simon, 1973; Goldin, 1978). Allard, Graham,
and Paarsalu (1980) were the first to use these paradigms in
sport. In separate experiments, they demonstrated that skilled
basketball players were more accurate than less-skilled
players in both recalling and recognising information
presented in structured sequences of play that represented
actual match-play scenarios, whereas, in contrast, this skill
superiority disappeared when sequences were presented as
random configurations of players. Skilled athletes, like
Grandmasters in chess, encode task-specific information into
meaningful configurations that are accessed during recognition and recall of structured patterns of play. These findings
were subsequently replicated in other sports and games such
as American football (Garland & Barry, 1991), snooker
(Abernethy, Neal, & Konning, 1994), and soccer (Williams &
Davids, 1995).
More recently, there have been attempts to better identify
the processes underpinning the recognition of structured
sequences, as well as the extent to which this particular skill
is actually related to anticipation. Williams, Hodges, North,
and Barton (2006) examined the relative importance of
superficial display features (e.g. colour of players’ uniforms,
environmental conditions, condition of playing surface) and
structured relational information (e.g. positions and/or
movements of players) when recognising sequences of play.
Skilled and less-skilled soccer players completed a
recognition test where sequences of play were presented
under both film and point-light conditions. In the point-light
condition, the positions and movements of players were
highlighted as coloured dots against a black background with
the field of play represented as white lines. Superficial
features such as the colour of players’ uniforms, postural
cues, or the condition of the playing surface and other
environmental effects were removed. Although skilled
players had lower accuracy scores in the point-light
compared to the film condition, the decrement was less
marked compared to less-skilled players and the skill main
effect was maintained across viewing conditions. In line
with research on analogical problem solving (e.g., Gentner &
Markman, 1998), skilled performers are able to recognise
patterns of play based upon structural relations and the
higher-order predicates they convey (e.g. tactical and
strategic significance of these relations between players),
whereas less-skilled players depend almost exclusively on
more superficial structural features.
In follow up studies, efforts were made to ascertain
whether some structural relations (e.g. spatial relationship
between two key task-relevant features) convey more
information than others (North, Williams, Ward, Hodges,
& Ericsson, 2009; Williams & North, 2009; Williams et al.,
2006). In one study a spatial occlusion technique was
employed to remove certain relational features from the
action sequences during the recognition phase, whereas in
other studies visual search data and retrospective verbal
Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
reports were gathered as players attempted to make
familiarity-based recognition judgements. When attempting
to identify sequences of play the ability to pick up relative
motion information between a few key features either in
isolation or in conjunction with other features is crucial.
Several researchers have proposed that the ability to
recognise patterns of play is central to anticipation in team
sports (e.g. Abernethy, Baker, & Côté, 2005; Williams &
Davids, 1995), whereas others have proposed that these are
incidental memory adaptations that are acquired as a
consequence of engaging in practice on representative
domain-relevant tasks (e.g. Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996).
North et al. (2009) analysed the visual search behaviours
employed during anticipation and recognition, respectively
to address this issue. Skilled participants showed no
differences in fixation transitions between key features
across the two tasks, indicating a broad, relation-based
perceptual strategy. However, in contrast, there was evidence
that the two tasks require somewhat different processing
strategies. When instructed to anticipate rather than
recognise film clips, participants fixated on more locations,
showed an increase in the number of fixations, recorded
shorter fixation durations and spent different periods of time
fixating various display areas.
Williams and North (2009) reported similar conclusions
based on retrospective verbal report protocols. When asked
to anticipate rather than recognise sequences of play
participants verbalised more stimuli, actions and cognitions,
albeit on both tasks the skilled players made more relevant
evaluations than less-skilled players. Although both anticipation and recognition tasks stimulate complex retrieval
structures, the processes involved in activating these
structures differ somewhat. While recognition may be
involved in anticipation to some degree, the latter skill is
more complex invoking different retrieval structures (cf.
Cañal-Bruland & Williams, 2010).
The findings from this programme of work lend support to
Dittrich’s (1999) Interactive Encoding Model. Dittrich
(1999) proposed that individuals combine both low- and
high-level cognitive processes when making recognitionbased judgements. Participants initially extract low-level
relational information and temporal relationships between
features, before engaging in high-level processing where the
information extracted is judged in the context of some stored
memory structure. One interpretation is that the stimulus
presentation is matched with an internal semantic concept or
template (Didierjean & Marméche, 2005; Gobet & Simon,
1996). The proposal is that skilled players develop an
extensive knowledge base of encountered scenes and
potential scene formations, which are stored as semantic
concepts or templates. Less-skilled players have fewer
templates and so processing is unrefined and based primarily
on the recognition of distinctive surface features. An
alternative interpretation is provided by Ericsson and
Kintsch’s (1995) Long-Term Working Memory theory,
which proposes that experts develop complex task-specific
encoding skills and associated retrieval structures in longterm memory. These retrieval structures allow experts to
index and store information at encoding, such that features
or collections of features can permit superior representation
Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 432–442 (2011)
Expertise and expert performance
of current scenarios and facilitate both recognition and
anticipation of events (Ericsson, Patel, & Kintsch, 2000).
These complex information structures in long-term memory
are accessible through cues held in short-term memory. The
proposal is that Long-Term Working Memory helps
performers develop an encoding for a situation, which, in
turn, facilitates monitoring, the formulation of planning
actions, and continual evaluation of the present situation and
planned actions.
Using probabilities and expectations in a situation
It has been suggested that expert athletes are able to anticipate
how a scenario will unfold based on their understanding of the
probabilities that a future event will occur in a given situation.
An anticipated outcome is pursued if expectations are matched
up with the available sensory evidence. The human brain is
presumed to employ some form of Bayesian strategy based on
the statistical distribution of likely event probabilities and the
level of uncertainty in the sensory feedback evolving from the
emerging display (Kording & Wolpert, 2004).
The role of event probabilities in sport was initially
examined using laboratory-based choice reaction time
paradigms (e.g. Alain & Proteau, 1980). However, there have
been recent attempts to develop more representative methods
using sport-specific stimuli (e.g. Crognier & Féry, 2005; Ward
& Williams, 2003). Ward and Williams (2003) showed a series
of 10 second duration filmed sequences of match action to
elite and sub-elite soccer players. In each trial at the end of the
sequence the final frame of action was frozen on screen.
Participants were required to highlight on a paper copy of the
frozen frame the options available to the player in possession
of the ball and then rank order those options in order of threat
to the defence. The elite players were better than the sub-elite
group at highlighting the key options and were more accurate
at ranking those options in order of threat, as determined by
an independent panel of expert coaches. In contrast, sub-elite
players were less efficient in their selection and ranking of
key options.
McRobert, Williams, Ward, and Eccles (submitted) used a
novel paradigm to illustrate how cricket batsmen develop
accurate expectations that enable them to predict the type of
delivery that they are likely to face. The batsmen were
required to play a simulated stroke in response to life-size
filmed representations of bowlers’ deliveries. In one
condition, the batsmen viewed a total of 36 random
deliveries from ten different bowlers, whereas in a second
condition batsmen were presented with an entire over (i.e. six
consecutive deliveries) from each of six bowlers who had
delivered only one ball each in the first condition. The
performance of the batsmen on the final delivery from
each six-ball over in the second condition was compared with
that on the same delivery when presented as an independent
trial in the first condition.
The cricket batsmen improved their anticipation accuracy
in the second condition which contained additional
contextual information compared to the random viewing
condition. Progressive changes in the visual search
behaviours and think-aloud verbal reports collected from
participants were apparent across the two conditions. When
Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
435
more contextual information was presented, batsmen altered
their gaze behaviours to spend more time fixating on central
(i.e. head-shoulder region) rather than peripheral (i.e. ballhand) areas. They articulated more higher-order statements
involving prediction and planning compared to lowerorder statements such as monitoring and evaluation. The
observed differences between the random and contextual
conditions suggest that the skilled batsmen were able to
develop better expectations of the type of delivery that a
bowler is likely to perform and use this information to
guide and refine their search for task-relevant information.
The influence of contextual, game-related information on
successful anticipation has also been reported in baseball
(McPhershon and MacMahon, 2008) and tennis (Crognier &
Féry, 2005).
How does the relative importance of these perceptualcognitive skills vary as function of task constraints in
sport?
Thus far, few researchers have examined how the different
perceptual-cognitive skills interact with each other in a
dynamic and evolving manner to facilitate anticipation in the
competitive setting (Williams & Ward, 2007). A reductionist
approach has typically been employed with researchers
focusing their efforts on developing paradigms that isolate
each perceptual-cognitive skill for systematic investigation
under controlled and reproducible conditions. However,
Roca, Ford, and Williams (2009) used a novel approach to
examine how different perceptual-cognitive skills interact
during performance in a dynamic, simulated task-environment. Skilled and less-skilled players were presented with
offensive sequences of play filmed from the perspective of a
central defender in soccer. The sequences of play either
started with the ball being located in the opposition half of
the pitch (i.e. far situation) or in the participant’s defensive
half (i.e. near situation). The dynamic sequences, which
lasted for 5–6 seconds each, were presented on a large screen
and were occluded at a key moment in the action.
Participants were required to anticipate the actions of their
opponent and choose the most appropriate strategic decision
to make in response to the situation. Verbal report protocols
were gathered immediately after each sequence and then
collated using an inductive, task-analysis procedure.
As expected, skilled defensive players demonstrated
superior anticipation and decision-making when compared
with their less-skilled counterparts. Verbal reports highlighted the continuous and dynamic interaction between
the different perceptual-cognitive skills. These findings are
highlighted in Figure 1. In the far task, participants made
more statements that referred to the postural orientation of
teammates and opponents, followed by expectations about
event outcomes, and finally relational information between
players, whereas, in the near task, players verbalised more
thought processes that were related to the identification of
relational information (i.e. pattern recognition) and situational probabilities when compared to the far task. Overall,
the skilled players made more inferences to situational
probabilities and pattern recognition than their less-skilled
counterparts.
Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 432–442 (2011)
436
A. Mark Williams et al.
Figure 1. The mean number of verbal statements referring to postural cues, pattern recognition, and situational probabilities and how these
differ as a function of the type of task in a film-based, soccer simulation test (data from Roca et al., 2009)
A suggestion is that several additional constraints
influence how important different perceptual-cognitive skills
are at any given moment when making anticipation
judgements (Williams, 2009). For example, when anxious,
athletes have been shown to reduce search rate and narrow
their focus of attention, potentially reducing the capacity to
use peripheral vision and influencing the relative importance
of different sources of information (Williams & Elliott,
1999). Similar changes in visual search have been shown
when athletes are fatigued (Vickers & Williams, 2007). A
key issue is that the importance of these perceptual-cognitive
skills is likely to be highly dynamic, varying considerably
depending on a range of factors or constraints. Unfortunately,
few researchers have attempted to identify the different
constraints (e.g. emotion) and how they influence the
importance of these perceptual-cognitive skills.
In similar vein, these findings have potentially significant
implications for the manner in which we try to capture and
enhance perceptual-cognitive skills across domains. If the
different perceptual-cognitive skills are observed to interact
in a dynamic manner during performance, then the value of
using a reductionist approach to try and capture (or train) one
component or skill in isolation may be questioned. It is
beyond the scope of this paper to consider how each of the
different methods presented in the paper may be combined to
provide a more complete picture of perceptual-cognitive
expertise in a particular task or domain, but interested readers
are directed elsewhere for this information (e.g. Williams &
Ericsson, 2005).
HOW ARE THE PROCESSES UNDERLYING
ANTICIPATION ACQUIRED?
In this section, we review recent attempts to identify how
perceptual-cognitive expertise is acquired. In particular, we
consider how engagement in the correct type and amount of
practice activities facilitates the acquisition of perceptualcognitive skills. Moreover, we examine the extent to which
Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
perceptual-cognitive skills are specific to a particular sport
and role within that sport or whether there is evidence to
support the notion that these skills are transferable and
generalise across different contexts.
Influence of practice
Since the seminal work on deliberate practice by Ericsson,
Krampe, and Tesch-Römer (1993), several researchers have
examined the practice history profiles of elite athletes. These
authors argued that continued improvements are dependent
on deliberate efforts to improve important aspects of
performance rather the repetitive execution of routine work.
Practice should be challenging in relation to its level of
difficulty, informative due to the availability of feedback, and
repetitive with an opportunity to detect and correct errors. A
combination of semi-structured interviews, questionnaires,
and training logs have been used to collect retrospective data
on the type and amount of practice accumulated over
the athlete’s career span (e.g., Ward, Hodges, Starkes, &
Williams, 2007).
Most recently, researchers have used the deliberate
practice approach to identify specific practice activities that
contribute towards the development of anticipation in sport.
Baker, Côté, and Abernethy (2003a; see also 2003b)
examined the role of sport-specific practice in the development of perceptual-cognitive expertise in the sports of fieldhockey, netball, and basketball. The practice history profiles
of international level athletes deemed by national team
coaches to be experts in terms of their anticipation and
decision-making skills were contrasted with those of a
control group of intermediate level performers deemed to be
non-experts on these particular dimensions of performance.
The experts had accumulated more hours in sport-specific
practice compared to non-experts. Moreover, the experts
spent more time in activities that they, and the non-experts,
deemed to be the most helpful in developing perceptualcognitive skills (e.g. video training, organised team practice,
individual instruction with a coach and competition). In
Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 432–442 (2011)
Expertise and expert performance
particular, time in competition was reported as the most
helpful activity in developing perceptual-cognitive skills.
In similar vein, Berry, Abernethy, and Côté (2008)
examined the developmental histories of players in the
Australian Football League who were either expert or lessexpert in relation to their perceptual-cognitive skills.
Although there were no differences between these two
groups of players in the hours of practice accumulated in
Australian Football, the expert group reported spending more
time in structured, invasion-type activities that had similar
demands to Australian Football. This study suggests that
some perceptual-cognitive skills transfer across sports and
that participation in sports that share some characteristics
may facilitate the development of anticipation skill over and
beyond the amount of sport-specific practice accumulated.
In a recent study, contradictory findings have been
reported using a sample of elite level soccer players
(Williams, Ford, Bell-Walker, & Ward, submitted). In this
study, elite level participants were stratified into ‘high
performing’ and ‘low performing’ based on their performance on established tests of perceptual-cognitive skill in
soccer. No significant differences were reported in the total
number of hours accumulated in match-play, coach-led
practice activity in soccer, the number of other sports in
which they engaged or the total hours accumulated in other
sports. However, the most discriminating variable was the
number of hours spent in soccer-specific, non coach-led play
activity. The participants who were ‘high performing’ as far
as their perceptual-cognitive skills were concerned had
accumulated more hours over their career in play activity in
soccer (i.e. street soccer) when compared with their ’low
performing’ counterparts.
Several advantages may arise as a result of extended
engagement in sport-specific, play activity. Participants are
allowed the freedom to experiment with different skills,
techniques, and tactics within their sport. Such conditions
create the opportunity to innovate, improvise, and respond
strategically, re-creating those conditions that are important
at the elite level in many sports. The increased variety and
greater opportunities for anticipation and decision-making
that likely arise may help facilitate the acquisition of flexible
and adaptive perceptual-cognitive skills. One should note
however, that only when these activities are supported by
engagement in substantial practice does expertise emerge. In
the absence of practice, engagement in play, deliberate or
otherwise does not lead to skilled performance (Ford,
Williams, Hodges, & Ward, 2009; Ward et al., 2007). Further
research is needed to better understand the roles of nonsportspecific and sport-specific play in the acquisition of
perceptual-cognitive expertise.
Specificity vs. generality
Another question related to notions of specificity and
generality is to what extent is the development of perceptualcognitive expertise specific to a particular sport or even
the position or role within that sport. Smeeton, Ward, and
Williams (2004) employed the recognition paradigm to
address this issue in the sports of soccer, hockey, and
volleyball. Soccer and hockey were predicted to share
Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
437
common structural (e.g. 11 players on each side on similar
size pitch), relational (e.g. players’ positions and movements), and tactical elements (e.g. principles of play such as
width in attack and depth in defence) and consequently, some
transfer of perceptual-cognitive skills was predicted when
compared to a relatively dissimilar sport such as volleyball.
Participants completed separate recognition tests in each of
the three sports. As predicted, no significant differences in
performance were evident between the skilled soccer and
hockey players on the structured soccer and hockey
sequences respectively, with both groups reporting superior
performance on these sequences compared to the skilled
volleyball players. In contrast, the skilled volleyball players
demonstrated much lower accuracy scores when responding
to the soccer and hockey sequences compared to their
performance on the volleyball trials. The identification of
playing sequences in soccer and hockey may be mediated by
common underlying principles (e.g. Gentner, 1983), implying that there is some transfer of perceptual-cognitive
expertise across sports. Similarly, Abernethy et al. (2005)
reported some selective transfer of recognition skills in
groups of expert netball, basketball, and field-hockey
players.
Although findings illustrate the possibility that perceptualcognitive expertise may transfer across sports, at no point did
athletes perform better on a related sport when compared
with their corresponding performance on the primary or
main sport. One should therefore not infer that practice in a
related sport (e.g. field hockey) may be better for developing
perceptual-cognitive expertise than engaging in the primary
sport (e.g. soccer). Moreover, there have been no attempts to
identify the mechanisms underpinning transfer effects. It
would be helpful to identify using process-tracing measures
(e.g. eye movement recording, verbal protocol analysis) the
specific processes employed by experts as they attempt to
identify sequences of play in similar and dissimilar sports.
Nonetheless, findings are encouraging and suggest that
experts are able to integrate novel stimuli into existing
encoding and retrieval structures to facilitate both recognition and transfer (Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995).
Williams, Ward, Smeeton, and Ward (2008) extended this
work to examine whether the level of specificity extends to a
particular positional role within a sport. A group of expert
offensive soccer players, a group of similarly skilled
defensive players, a group of novice offensive players and
a group of similarly novice defensive players completed a
film-based anticipation test. The expert defenders were
significantly more accurate in their judgements than
their equally expert offensive counterparts, with both of
these groups performing better than novice defensive and
offensive players. Since the primary task for defenders is to
anticipate the actions of attacking players, they are likely to
develop more refined, position-specific cognitive representations to facilitate anticipation skill compared to offensive
players. Offensive players are, by definition, in possession of
the ball and so, other skills (e.g. decision-making) are likely
to take precedence over anticipation of the actions of an
opposing player. In sum, expert defenders develop cognitive
representations that are position- as well as sport-specific
(Didierjean & Marméche, 2005; Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995).
Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 432–442 (2011)
A. Mark Williams et al.
In this section, we consider whether the acquisition of
perceptual-cognitive expertise may be facilitated through the
use of systematic training interventions. This issue has
attracted increasing interest over recent years, albeit there
remains a need for more systematic and cohesive programmes of research to fully examine the practical utility of
such interventions (for detailed reviews, see Ward, Williams,
& Hancock, 2006; Ward, Farrow, Harris, Williams, Eccles, &
Ericsson, 2008; Ward, Suss, & Basevitch, 2009; Williams &
Ward, 2003).
The vast majority of researchers have attempted to
improve the ability of athletes to pick up advance visual cues
from an opponent’s postural orientation. Unfortunately,
relatively few, if any, researchers have attempted to enhance
pattern recognition or situational assessment (for an
exception, see Williams, Heron, Ward, & Smeeton, 2005).
The most frequently used approach has been to simulate the
performance environment using film (e.g. return of serve in
tennis) and then to provide instruction as to the important
sources of information, coupled with practice, and feedback
in relation to performance on the task (e.g. Smeeton,
Williams, Hodges, & Ward, 2005; Williams, Ward, &
Chapman, 2003; Williams, Ward, Knowles, & Smeeton,
2002). Alternative approaches have involved the use of fieldbased interventions either in isolation or in conjunction with
film-based training (e.g. Farrow & Abernethy, 2002) and
virtual reality simulations of the performance setting (e.g.
Walls, Bertrand, Gale, & Saunders, 1998). Overall, this
research work illustrates the practical utility of these types of
interventions in facilitating the acquisition of specific
perceptual-cognitive skills.
Another body of work has focused on the relative
effectiveness of different approaches to instruction. Williams
et al. (2002) compared the effectiveness of guided discovery
with a traditional explicit instruction approach when
developing the ability of novice performers to anticipate
the direction of forehand and backhand drive shots in tennis.
After completing a pre-test in the laboratory and field
respectively, participants completed 45 minutes of laboratory
based training, 45 minutes of on-court instruction, followed
by a post-test in the laboratory and field setting. In the group
of novice tennis players who received explicit instruction,
the key postural cues were highlighted during training.
The group who received guided discovery instructions were
merely directed towards potentially informative areas of the
display, such as the trunk or hips, encouraging them to
discover meaningful relationships between various postural
cues and shot outcome. In the laboratory, players were
required to respond in an interceptive manner to filmed
images involving tennis forehand and backhand shots
presented on a large screen, whereas on-court the players’
responded to a live feed from another tennis player.
The two experimental groups significantly reduced their
response times on the laboratory and on-court post-test
relative to matched placebo (watched tennis instructional
videos) and control (completed pre- and post-tests only)
Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
groups. There were no significant differences in response
accuracy across groups or test sessions. No significant
differences were observed between the two training groups;
both groups were significantly faster on the post-test when
responding and this improvement transferred to the field
setting. The guided discovery approach was at least as
effective as more traditional, prescriptive approaches to
instruction.
In a follow up study, Smeeton et al. (2005) examined the
relative effectiveness of explicit instruction, guided discovery, and discovery learning methods in improving
anticipation in 12-year old, intermediate level tennis players.
A longer acquisition period was employed involving
4 20 minute sessions over a 4-week period, as well as a
delayed retention test involving an anxiety manipulation.
Film-based training was used in which participants viewed
the shots of opponents occluded at ball-racket contact.
Instruction was provided after each clip and then participants
viewed the same shot without occlusion allowing them to see
the eventual outcome. All three training groups significantly
improved performance pre- to post-training when compared
to a control group, highlighting the benefits of film-based
simulation training. Participants in the explicit and guided
discovery groups improved performance during acquisition
more rapidly than the discovery learning group. However,
the explicit group showed a significant decrement in
performance when tested under anxiety provoking conditions compared to the guided-discovery and discovery
learning groups. The findings are presented in Figure 2.
While explicit instruction may result in more rapid
improvements in performance during acquisition, less
prescriptive instructional approaches lead to more robust
learning effects and greater resilience under pressure.
(a) 4100
Decision time (ms)
HOW CAN THE ACQUISITION OF THESE SKILLS
BE FACILITATED VIA RELEVANT TRAINING
INTERVENTIONS?
pre
post
4000
3900
3800
3700
Placebo
(b) 2400
Decision time (ms)
438
pre
Control
Explicit
Instruction
Guided
Discovery
Control
Explicit
Instruction
Guided
Discovery
post
2300
2200
2100
2000
1900
Placebo
Figure 2. The decision times reported for the four participant
groups on (a) laboratory- and (b) on-court based pre- and posttests (data from Smeeton et al., 2005)
Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 432–442 (2011)
Expertise and expert performance
Numerous questions have yet to be answered adequately
such as: What is the relative effectiveness of the different
types of training media (e.g. video vs. on-court vs. virtual
reality)? Can each perceptual-cognitive skill be trained in
isolation or do they need to be trained together in the manner
they are used in actual performance? Would this type of
training be most effective with a particular age or skill group?
How should perceptual-cognitive training programmes be
structured for optimum learning? There remains considerable scope for those interested in exploring innovative
methods to facilitate the acquisition of perceptual-cognitive
expertise in sport, as well as in other domains such as
medicine, the military, and law enforcement (for reviews,
see Ward et al., 2006, 2008, 2009).
IMPLICATIONS FOR APPLIED COGNITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY
In this final section, we consider how research on perceptualcognitive expertise in sport can impact on those interested in
applied cognitive psychology. In particular, we consider how
research on elite athletes can influence the methods and
measures used to evaluate performance across domains.
Also, we examine how the typical focus in sports science
on translational research that impacts performance can
influence research in applied cognitive psychology.
Novel methods and measures
Psychologists undertaking research with elite athletes have
been particularly innovative in attempting to develop methods
and measures that enable performance to be captured
objectively and reliably in laboratory and field situations.
In the laboratory, film-based simulations, virtual reality, and
physical simulators have all been used successfully to capture
performance (e.g. Ward et al., 2006; Williams & Ericsson,
2005). The use of movement sensitive pressure mats, infra-red
motion detectors, optoelectronic motion analysis systems,
accelerometers, and high-speed video analyses have provided
accurate and sensitive response measures. In the field setting,
high-speed film, liquid crystal occlusion glasses, digital
coding technology, satellite, and camera-based player and ball
tracking technology have all been employed to help evaluate
aspects of sporting performance in situ (Carling, Williams, &
Reilly, 2008). Moreover, there have been attempts to record
process-tracing (e.g. visual search, verbal reports) as well as
outcome measures simultaneously during performance (e.g.
McRobert, Williams, Ward, & Eccles, 2009; Vaeyens, Lenoir,
Williams, Mazyn, & Philippaerts, 2007).
Most psychologists interested in expertise in sport are
employed in sports science or kinesiology departments,
providing a fertile environment for multi-disciplinary
research between biomechanics, exercise physiology, and
behavioural neuroscience. In biomechanics, high-speed film,
electromyography, force transducers, in-shoe recording
pressure devices, optoelectronic cameras, electrogoniometres, and force platforms are standard items of equipment.
Such devices provide accurate and sensitive tools to examine
the kinetics (i.e. forces) and kinematics (i.e. motion
Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
439
characteristics) of behaviour under controlled conditions.
In exercise physiology, physical workload, environmental
conditions, and stress can all be manipulated to examine their
effects on perceptual-cognitive processes (e.g. Vickers &
Williams, 2007). Finally, an increasing number of scientists
are now employing neuroscience methods to provide a
window on the perceptual-cognitive processes employed by
expert athletes (e.g. Wagg, Williams, Vogt, & Higuchi, 2009;
Wright, Bishop, Jackson, & Abernethy, 2010; Yarrow,
Brown, & Krakauer, 2009).
An advantage of working in a relatively new field is that
scientists are keen to embrace new methods, measures, and
manipulations from a broad range of discipline areas in a
concerted effort to ascertain how best to capture expert
performance. Only when the superior performance of experts
can be systematically reproduced under controlled and
realistic conditions that mimic those evident in the actual
performance setting can we begin to examine experimentally
the mechanisms mediating the acquisition of expertise. The
field of Applied Cognitive Psychology (if one includes related
fields such as Human Factors, Engineering Psychology,
Cognitive Engineering, Cognitive Technology, Cognitive
Ergonomics, Human-Computer Interaction, and Applied
Cognitive Science) has generally embraced the integration
of novel technologies, both as a central research focus in and
of itself (i.e. human-technological interactions) and, specifically, as a means to develop better research methodologies for
studying expertise and expert performance in complex,
technological environments. However, those holding a stricter
definition of Applied Cognitive Psychology (that excludes
these broader disciplines) have preferred to use contrived tasks
and adapt laboratory-based methods to study applied
problems rather than embrace technological innovations
and less traditional methods. The current review, hopefully,
demonstrates that simulation-based technology and other
measurement systems can be used to create representative task
environments in which expert performance can be reliably
measured, without having to forego experimental control in
order to increase ecological validity, representativeness, and
salience (Hoffman & Deffenbacher, 1992). Accordingly,
applied cognitive psychology researchers might benefit from
better embracing new technology and forging close collaborations with other discipline areas in order to more
appropriately capture key elements of the domain and to
remain at the forefront of these technological and methodological developments (Ericsson & Ward, 2007).
A focus on application: Translational research on
expert performance
Scientists interested in expertise in sport have a strong
tendency to focus on the relevance or applicability of their
work to performance enhancement within the domain (e.g.
Farrow, Baker, & MacMahon, 2008; Williams & Hodges,
2004; Williams & Ford, 2009). This natural tendency to
engage in translational research that examines how scientific
findings in the laboratory can be converted into effective
interventions that impact on society should be encouraged
and embraced wholeheartedly by other disciplines. The need
for a more interactive exchange between researchers in the
Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 432–442 (2011)
440
A. Mark Williams et al.
laboratory and the field has gained increasing prominence in
recent years (e.g. Ericsson & Williams, 2007). The process
should be viewed as bidirectional, embracing the need to
isolate aspects of successful interventions for systematic
analyses under controlled experimental settings with the
more traditional pathway from theoretically motivated
laboratory studies to the field of application (Vernig,
2007; see also Woods, 1998).
Although attempts to bridge the gap between science and
practice are already evident in bidirectional traditionally
applied fields such as medicine and the health sciences, the
importance of translational research should be embraced in all
fields of scientific discovery. While funding agencies have
typically asked applicants to highlight how proposed work
addresses issues relevant to societal phenomena, there is
increasing awareness of the need to move towards a more
complete translation from information derived in the laboratory
to the development of interventions that impact on society in a
meaningful way (Ericsson & Ward, 2007; Ericsson &
Williams, 2007; Simonton, 2003). This dialogue between
research fields that promote epistemological utility and those
that promote ecological utility (Hoffman & Deffenbacher,
1993), whether laboratory- or field-based, is essential for
the development of evidence-based practices and superior
professionals irrespective of domain. The coverage of research
in this review paper would suggest that this process is well
underway in the area of perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport.
In conclusion, we have provided an overview of research
on anticipation in sport. A number of perceptual-cognitive
skills work together in an integrated and dynamic manner to
facilitate anticipation. These skills include the ability to pick
up postural cues from an opponent, to identify structure or
patterns within evolving sequences of play, and to accurately
predict events based on their likelihood of occurring. These
perceptual-cognitive skills are acquired through prolonged
engagement in certain types of practice activities which
result in specific adaptations mediated by the development of
more refined and elaborate encoding and retrieval processes
in memory. Preliminary findings suggest that there may be
some transfer of perceptual-cognitive expertise across sports,
albeit equally compelling is the notion that perceptualcognitive skills are both sport and role specific. An increasing
body of empirical research exists to suggest that the
acquisition of perceptual-cognitive expertise may be
enhanced through simulation-based training and through
engagement in specific types of practice activities. Finally,
implications of research on perceptual-cognitive expertise in
sport for applied cognitive psychologists were considered.
REFERENCES
Abernethy, B., Baker, J., & Côté, J. (2005). Transfer of pattern recall skills
may contribute to the development of sport expertise. Applied Cognitive
Psychology, 19, 705–718.
Abernethy, B., Gill, D. P., Parks, S. L., & Packer, S. T. (2001). Expertise and
the perception of kinematic and situational probability information.
Perception, 30, 233–252.
Abernethy, B., Neal, R. J., & Koning, P. (1994). Visual-perceptual and
cognitive differences between expert, intermediate, and novice snooker
players. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 8, 185–211.
Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Alain, C., & Proteau, L. (1980). Decision making in sport. In C. H. Nadeau,
W. R. Halliwell, K. M. Newell, & G. C. Roberts (Eds.), Psychology of
motor behavior and sport (pp. 465–477). Champaign, IL: Human
Kinetics.
Allard, F., Graham, S., & Paarsalu, M. L. (1980). Perception in sport:
Basketball. Journal of Sport Psychology, 2, 14–21.
Baker, J., Côté, J., & Abernethy, B. (2003a). Learning from the experts:
Practice activities of expert decision makers in sport. Research Quarterly
for Exercise and Sport, 74, 342–347.
Baker, J., Côté, J., & Abernethy, B. (2003b). Sport-specific practice and the
development of expert decision making in team ball sports. Journal of
Applied Sport Psychology, 15, 12–25.
Berry, J., Abernethy, B., & Côté, J. (2008). The contribution of structured
activity and deliberate play to the development of expert perceptual
and decision-making skill. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 30,
685–708.
Bryan, W. L., & Harter, N. (1899). Studies on the telegraphic language:
The acquisition of a hierarchy of habits. Psychological Review, 6,
345–375.
Cañal-Bruland, R., & Williams, A. M. (2010). Movement recognition and
prediction of movement effects in biological motion perception. Experimental Psychology, DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000038
Carling, C., Reilly, T. P., & Williams, A. M. (2008). Performance assessment
in field sports. London: Routledge.
Chase, W. G., & Simon, A. S. (1973). Perception in chess. Cognitive
Psychology, 4, 55–81.
Crognier, L., & Féry, Y. (2005). Effect of tactical initiative on predicting
passing shots in tennis. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19, 1–13.
Cutting, J. E., & Proffitt, D. R. (1982). The minimum principle and
the perception of absolute, common, and relative motions. Cognitive
Psychology, 14, 211–246.
Dittrich, W. H. (1999). Seeing biological motion: Is there a role for cognitive
strategies?. In A. Braffort, R. Gherbi, S. Gibet, J. Richardson, & D. Teil
(Eds.), Gesture-based communication in human-computer interaction
(pp 3–22). Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag.
Didierjean, A., & Marméche, E. (2005). Anticipatory representation of
visual basketball scenes by novice and expert players. Visual Cognition,
12, 265–283.
Ericsson, K. A. (2006). The influence of experience and deliberate practice
on the development of superior expert performance. In K. A. Ericsson,
N. Charness, P. J. Feltovich, & R. R. Hoffman (Eds.), The Cambridge
handbook of expertise and expert performance (pp. 683–704). New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Ericsson, K. A., Hoffman, P., Charness, N., & Feltovich, P. (Eds.). (2006).
The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ericsson, K. A., & Kintsch, W. (1995). Long-term working memory.
Psychological Review, 102, 211–245.
Ericsson, K. A., & Ward, P. (2007). Capturing the naturally-occurring
superior performance of experts in the laboratory: Toward a science of
expert and exceptional performance. Current Directions in Psychological
Science, 16, 346–350.
Ericsson, K. A., & Lehmann, A. C. (1996). Expert and exceptional performance: Evidence of maximal adaptation to task constraints. Annual
Review of Psychology, 47, 273–305.
Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of
deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100, 363–406.
Ericsson, K. A., Patel, V., & Kintsch, W. (2000). How experts’ adaptations to
representative task demands account for the expertise effect in memory
recall: Comment on Vicente and Wang (1998). Psychological Review,
107, 578–592.
Ericsson, K. A., & Williams, A. M. (2007). Capturing naturally occurring
superior performance in the laboratory: Translational research on
expert performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 13,
115–123.
Farrow, D., & Abernethy, B. (2002). Can anticipatory skills be learned
through implicit video-based perceptual training? Journal of Sports
Sciences, 20, 471–485.
Farrow, D., Baker, J., & MacMahon, C. (2008). Developing sport expertise: Researchers and coaches put theory into practice. Routledge:
London.
Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 432–442 (2011)
Expertise and expert performance
Ford, P. R., Ward, P., Hodges, N. J., & Williams, A. M. (2009). The role of
deliberate practice and play in career progression in sport: the early
engagement hypothesis. High Ability Studies, 20, 65–75.
Garland, D. J., & Barry, J. R. (1991). Cognitive advantage in sport: The
nature of perceptual structures. The American Journal of Psychology, 104,
211–228.
Gentner, D. (1983). Structure-mapping: A theoretical framework for analogy. Cognitive Science, 7, 155–170.
Gentner, D., & Markman, A. B. (1998). Structure mapping in analogy and
similarity. In P. Thagard (Ed.), Mind readings (pp. 127–156). Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Gobet, F., & Simon, H. A. (1996). Templates in chess memory: A mechanism for recalling several boards. Cognitive Psychology, 31, 1–40.
Goldin, S. E. (1978). Effects of orienting tasks on recognition of chess
positions. American Journal of Psychology, 91, 659–671.
Hodges, N. J., Huys, R., & Starkes, J. L. (2007). Methodological review and
evaluation of research in expert performance in sport. In G. Tenenbaum,
& R. C. Eklund (Eds.), Handbook of sport psychology (pp. 161–183).
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Hoffman, R. R., & Deffenbacher, K. A. (1992). A brief history of applied
cognitive psychology. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 6, 1–48.
Huys, R., Smeeton, N. J., Hodges, N. J., Beek, P., & Williams, A. M. (2008).
The dynamical information underlying anticipation skill in tennis.
Perception and Psychophysics, 18, 1217–1234.
Huys, R., Cañal-Bruland, R., Hagemann, N., & Williams, A. M. (2009).
The effects of occlusion neutralization, and deception of perceptual
information on anticipation in tennis. Journal of Motor Behavior, 41,
158–171.
Jackson, R. C., Warren, S., & Abernethy, B. (2006). Anticipation skill and
susceptibility to deceptive movement. Acta Psychologica, 123, 355–371.
Kording, K. P., & Wolpert, D. M. (2004). Bayesian integration in sensorimotor learning. Nature, 427, 244–247.
McPhershon, S. L., & MacMahon, C. (2008). How baseball batters prepare
to bat: Tactical knowledge as a mediator of expert performance in
baseball. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 30, 755–778.
McRobert, A., Williams, A. M., Ward, P., & Eccles, D. W. (2009). Perceptual-cognitive mechanisms underpinning expertise: The effects of task
constraints. Ergonomics, 52, 474–483.
McRobert, A., Williams, A. M., Ward, P., & Eccles, D. W. (submitted).
Contextual information and anticipation skill in cricket batting. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Müller, S., & Abernethy, B. (2006). Batting with occluded vision: an in situ
examination of the information pick-up and interceptive skills of highand low-skilled cricket batsmen. Journal of Science and Medicine in
Sport, 9, 446–458.
Müller, S., Abernethy, B., & Farrow, D. (2006). How do world-class
cricket batsmen anticipate a bowler’s intention? Quarterly Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 59, 2162–2186.
North, J. S., Williams, A. M., Ward, P., Hodges, N. J., & Ericsson, K. A.
(2009). Perceiving patterns in dynamic action sequences: The relationship
between anticipation and pattern recognition skill. Applied Cognitive
Psychology, 23, 1–17.
Poluton, E. C. (1957). On prediction in skilled movements. Psychological
Bulletin, 54, 467–478.
Roca, A., Ford, P. R., & Williams, A. M. (2009). Perceptual-cognitive skills
and their interaction as a function of task and skill level in soccer: A
preliminary analysis using verbal report protocols. Proceedings of the
41st Annual Conference of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor
Learning and Sport Psychology, Toronto, Canada, p. 117.
Roca, A., Ford, P. R., & Williams, A. M. (2009). Perceptual-cognitive skills
and their interaction as a function of task and skill level in soccer: A
preliminary analysis using verbal report protocols. Proceedings of the
41st Annual Conference of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor
Learning and Sport Psychology, Toronto, Canada, p. 117.
Simonton, D. K. (2003). Scientific creativity as constrained stochastic
behavior: The integration of product, person, and process perspectives.
Psychological Bulletin, 129, 475–494.
Smeeton, N., Ward, P., & Williams, A. M. (2004). Transfer of perceptual
skill in sport. Journal of Sports Science, 19, 3–9.
Smeeton, N. J., Williams, A. M., Hodges, N. J., & Ward, P. (2005).
The relative effectiveness of explicit instruction, guided-discovery and
Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
441
discovery learning techniques in enhancing perceptual skill in sport.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 11, 98–110.
Starkes, J. L., Edwards, P., Dissanayake, P., & Dunn, T. (1995). A new
technology and field test of advance cue usage in volleyball. Research
Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 66, 162–167.
Vaeyens, R., Lenoir, M., Williams, A. M., Mazyn, L., & Philippaerts, R. M.
(2007). The effects of task constraints on visual search behavior and
decision-making skill in youth soccer players. Journal of Sport &
Exercise Psychology, 29, 156–175.
Vernig, P. M. (2007). From science to practice: Bridging the gap with
translational research. APS Observer, 20, 29–30.
Vickers, J., & Williams, A. M. (2007). Why some choke and others don’t.
Journal of Motor Behavior, 39, 381–394.
Wagg, C. J., Williams, A. M., Vogt, S., & Higuchi, S. (2009). The neural
substrate of anticipation skill in tennis and soccer: An event-related fMRI
study. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 31, S103.
Walls, J., Bertrand, L., Gale, T., & Saunders, N. (1998). Assessment of
upwind dinghy sailing performance using a virtual reality dinghy sailing
simulator. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 1, 61–71.
Ward, P., Farrow, D., Harris, K. R., Williams, A. M., Eccles, D. W., &
Ericsson, K. A. (2008). Training perceptual-cognitive skills: Can sport
psychology research inform military decision training? Military Psychology, 20, S71–S102.
Ward, P., Hodges, N. J., Starkes, J., & Williams, A. M. (2007). The road to
excellence: Deliberate practice and the development of expertise. High
Ability Studies, 18, 119–153.
Ward, P., Suss, J., & Basevitch, I. (2009). Expertise and expert performancebased training (ExPerT) in complex domains. Technology, Instruction,
Cognition and Learning, 7, 121–145.
Ward, P., & Williams, A. M. (2003). Perceptual and cognitive skill
development in soccer: The multidimensional nature of expert performance. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 25, 93–111.
Ward, P., Williams, A. M., & Bennett, S. J. (2002). Visual search and
biological motion perception in tennis. Research Quarterly for Exercise
and Sport, 73, 107–112.
Ward, P., Williams, A. M., & Hancock, P. (2006). Simulation for performance and training. In K. A. Ericsson, P. Hoffman, N. Charness, &
P. Feltovich (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert
performance (pp. 243–262). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press.
Williams, A. M. (2009). Perceiving the intentions of others: how do skilled
performers make anticipation judgements? In M. Raab, J. G. Johnson, &
H. R. Heekeren (Eds.), Progress in brain research, vol 174, mind and
motion: The bidirectional link between thought and action (pp. 73–83).
The Netherlands: Elsevier.
Williams, A. M., & Davids, K. (1995). Declarative knowledge in sport: A byproduct of experience or a characteristic of expertise? Journal of Sport &
Exercise Psychology, 7, 259–275.
Williams, A. M., & Davids, K. (1998). Visual search strategy, selective
attention, and expertise in soccer. Research Quarterly for Exercise and
Sport, 69, 2, 111–128.
Williams, A. M., & Elliott, D. (1999). Anxiety and visual search strategy in
karate. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 21, 362–375.
Williams, A. M., & Ericsson, K. A. (2005). Some considerations when
applying the expert performance approach in sport. Human Movement
Science, 24, 283–307.
Williams, A. M., & Ford, P. R. (2009). Preparing for the Olympics:
Promoting a skills-based agenda in the development of elite athletes.
Journal of Sports Sciences, 27, 1381–1392.
Williams, A. M., & Ford, P. (2008). Expertise and expert performance in
sport. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1, 4–18.
Williams, A. M., & Hodges N. J. (Eds.). (2004). Skill acquisition in sport:
Research, theory and practice. London: Routledge.
Williams, A. M., & North, J. S. (2009). Identifying the minimal essential
information underlying pattern recognition. In D. Arajuo, H. Ripoll, &
M. Raab (Eds.), Perspectives on cognition and action (pp. 95–107).
Hauppauge, New York Nova Science Publishing.
Williams, A. M., & Ward, P. (2003). Perceptual expertise: Development in
sport. In J. L. Starkes, & K. A. Ericsson (Eds.), Expert performance in
sports: Advances in research on sport expertise (pp. 220–249). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 432–442 (2011)
442
A. Mark Williams et al.
Williams, A. M., & Ward, P. (2007). Perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport:
Exploring new horizons. In G. Tenenbaum, & R. C. Eklund (Eds.),
Handbook of Sport Psychology (pp. 203–223). New York: John Wiley
and Sons.
Williams, A. M., Davids, K., & Williams, J. G. (1999). Visual perception and
action in sport. London: E.&F.N. Spon.
Williams, A. M., Janelle, C. M., & Davids, K. (2004). Constraints on the
search for visual information in sport. International Journal of Sport and
Exercise Psychology, 2, 301–318.
Williams, A. M., Ericsson, K. A., Ward, P., & Eccles, D. W. (2008). Research
on expertise in sport: Implications for the military. Military Psychology,
20, S123–S145.
Williams, A. M., Ford, P. R., Bell-Walker, J., & Ward, P. (submitted).
The antecedents of perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport: How
do athletes develop anticipation skill? Manuscript submitted for
publication.
Williams, A. M., Heron, K., Ward, P., & Smeeton, N. J. (2005). Using
situational probabilities to train perceptual and cognitive skill in novice
soccer players. In T. P. Reilly, J. Cabri, & D. Araujo (Eds.), Science and
football V (pp. 337–340). London: Taylor and Francis.
Williams, A. M., Hodges, N. J., North, J. S., & Barton, G. (2006).
Perceiving patterns of play in dynamic sport tasks: Identifying the
Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
essential information underlying skilled performance. Perception, 35,
317–332.
Williams, A. M., Huys, R., Cañal-Bruland, R., & Hagemann, N. (2009). The
dynamical information underpinning deception effects. Human Movement Science, 28, 362–370.
Williams, A. M., Ward, P., & Chapman, C. (2003). Training perceptual skill
in field hockey: Is there transfer from the laboratory to the field? Research
Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 74, 98–103.
Williams, A. M., Ward, P., Knowles, J. M., & Smeeton, N. J. (2002).
Perceptual skill in a real-world task: Training, instruction, and transfer
in tennis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8, 259–270.
Williams, A. M., Ward, P., Smeeton, N. J., & Ward, J. (2008). Task
specificity, role, and anticipation skill in soccer. Research Quarterly
for Exercise and Sport, 79, 429–433.
Woods, D. D. (1998). Designs are hypotheses about how artefacts shape
cognition and collaboration. Ergonomics, 41, 168–173.
Wright, M. J., Bishop, D., Jackson, R., & Abernethy, B. (2010). Functional
MRI reveals expert-novice differences during sport-related anticipation.
Neuroreport, 21, 94–98.
Yarrow, K., Brown, P., & Krakauer, J. W. (2009). Inside the brain of an elite
athlete: the neural processes that support high achievement in sports.
Nature Neuroscience, 10, 585–596.
Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 432–442 (2011)