Processing information and making decisions

Objectives

• The information processing approach for understanding motor performance

• The stages that occur during information processing

• Various factors that influence the speed of information processing

• The role of anticipation in hastening the speed of responding

• Memory systems and their roles in motor performance

Information-processing approach

Researchers have found it useful to think of the human being as a processor of information (like a computer)

Input to information processing to response to output

Three stages of information processing

Stimulus identification

Response selection

Response programming

Reaction Time (RT)

It is an important performance measure indicating the speed and effectiveness of decision making

RT interval is a measure of the accumulated duration of the three stages of processing

Factors that influence reaction time

Number of possible stimuli

Practice

Response compatibility

Number of stimulus-response alternatives

• It is a factor that influences RT

• RT is the time required to detect and recognize the stimulus and select and initiate the proper response

• Hick’s law: The more choices a person has, the longer it takes them to choose a response

Number of stimulus-response alternatives #2

Hick’s law in-depth

There is a stable relationship between the number of stimulus-response options and choice reaction time. As the number of S-R pairs increases, choice reaction time increases in a linear fashion

Stimulus-response compatibility

It is the extent to which the stimulus and the response it evokes are connected in a natural way

Population Stereotypes

It is a type of stimulus-response compatibility

Anticipation

It is one way in which leaners cope with long RT delays

A performer can organize movements in advance

Types of Anticipation

Spatial-the ability to anticipate performance movement

Temporal-the ability to predict the time course of an event

Benefits of anticipation

• A correct anticipation can result in the processing lag equivalent to RT = 0ms

• One factor that affects the capability to predict effectively is the regularity of events

Strategies for preventing anticipation

• Anticipation is best with randomization(keep movements unpredictable)

• Anticipation is best if opponent anticipates incorrectly and pays extra movement cost

Short-Term sensory store

It is responsible for storing vast amounts of sensory information only long enough for some of it to be abstracted and further processed

Short-Term Memory

• Composed of a temporary workspace where relevant information is processed

• Information may be retrieved, rehearsed, processed and transferred

• A small amount of information may be held, which uses 7 plus or minus 2 items or chucks(try to remember numbers)

Long-Term Memory

• Characterized as having unlimited capacity and duration

• Information reaches LTM through effortful processing of information in STM, which transfer it to LTM

• The lost mariner