Discuss how information processing varies between individual, racket and team activities

Audition is what a performer can hear, for example a team mate calling you. Rugby again is quite affected when it comes to this sense, as the crowd cheer and shout, meaning that it could be quite difficult to hear or focus on the sounds around the performers. This could therefore have a negative effect on this type of sense as it causes weaker stimuli. Golf and tennis are effected quite differently as the crowd around respectfully remain quiet in order to allow the performer to concentrate to the best of their ability.

Finally proprioception, this is receptors in the body that are sensitive to movement. There are three parts to this sense:

* Equilibrium: The performer's awareness of their body positioning in relation to the environment and or their balance. This is seen as an ability however it can become improved with enough practice. An example of this is knowing when we need to correct our body position when thrown off balance in a tackle in rugby.

* Kinaesthesis: aka muscle memory, is how the performer feels the bodies movement and uses it for development. Over time and much practice a performer develops"kinaesthesis awareness", this allows the performer to remember whether the current action is "correct". This can be related to rugby, when a fly half takes conversions, or in golf when performing the swing. It can also be related to tennis, if the serve is timed correctly etc.

* Tactile: this is the feeling of pressure. For example the delicate touch of a putt in golf, or how hard to hit a lob in tennis. A rugby player may use this sense to determine how far to pass the ball.

Short term memory store is where input information is stored by the performer for the small amount of time, before processing the relevant from the irrelevant information. This information is then either replaced or lost. This does not differ between sports apart from the fact that in team sports there is more input than that in individual or racket sports, this could lead to an error as not all information can be processed and stored.

The perception stage of IP is where the performer sorts the relevant information from the irrelevant information. This stage is different when it comes to amateurs and professionals as the pros can sort the information much quicker. The information that is relevant is stored in the short term memory however that seen as irrelevant is discarded. This sorting process is known as selective attention. Information collected in a team sport is much greater than the information collected in individual or racket sports, it is for this reason the selective attention process takes longer for team sports, which means there is less time for the performer to perform the skill.

Information seen as relevant is sent to the short term memory store, otherwise known as the working memory. Information is stored here for less than a minute, and it is thought that only around seven pieces of information can be stored here at once. However it is believed that "experts" can store information as "chunks", for example all team players position, not just one player's. This could be the reason behind experts making better decisions. Again due to the reason team sports has more inputs than racket or individual sports, the process is slower as not all the information can be stored and processed at once. Whereas individual and racket sports have fewer inputs and so the process is generally quicker.

Long term memory basically stores large quantities of data from past experience, this store has room for a lifetimes experience and movement patterns. It's stimulated by similar patterns of movement of a skill and so helps the player to perform the skill with success. As team sports have a greater number of open skills, the decision making process is slowed, the decision making process relates to both short and long term memory stores to choose the best suited skill for the environment etc. Hick's law states that the greater the amount of possible responses the greater the time taken in the decision making. For example a rugby player needs to decide what skill to use from a huge amount due to the complexity of the game, whereas on the other hand golf and tennis players have fewer possible outputs and therefore the time needed is shorter.

The motor output is the performance of a skill from the long term memory, the current movement is then stored and so can be used in the future and can also be developed to have a better outcome.

After analysing the IP model, it would be true to say the following equation is correct:

Response time = reaction time + movement time

It is also clear that as a rule of thumb, the reaction time for performers in a team sport is greater than that of performers in team or individual activities. This is generally because team sports have a greater complexity of stimuli in comparison to racket or individual sports.

Bibliography

* Advanced PE for Edexcel Heinemann by F.Galligan, C.Maskery, J.Spense, D.Howe, T.Barry, A.Ruston, D.Crawford