A Level PE - Information Processing

A Level PE- Information Processing (I.P):

The way the human brain processes information was first applied to skill acquisition in 1968 (Welford), a psychologist. He saw basic information processing as having 3 main stages:

1. Input of information (perception)
2. Throughput (decision making)
3. Output (response)

• It allows sport psychologists to break down skills and understand how people acquire skills 
• Before skills are performed we first process all the information available to us from our surroundings

Information Processing: ’the structure and function of all the components that make up the process in the brain where information is received, dealt with and passed to the muscles for movement to occur

Basic Information Processing:

• Information Processing describes how performers:

- Take in large amounts of information from the environment

- Analyse and interpret the information

- Make decisions about which response to make

1. Input: (stimulus identification) Information is gathered from the environment/display, and a stimulus is recognised
2. Decision Making: (Response Selection) Gathered information is used to create a motor programme/muscle movements
3. Output: (Response Programme) The muscle movement produced in response to the stimulus 
4. Feedback: Information about the performance is received - can be internal/external

Detailed Models:

• These allow us to have a better understanding of how people process information in sport
• These are only models (psychologists ideas of what might happen as we perform and learn)
• Mental processes can’t be measured
• The most popular models were made by Whiting, Welford and Schmidt

Whiting’s Model (1969):

Input Data from Display:

• Involves info from the environment which enters the brain via the sense organs
• There are 3 main receptor systems that take info from the display:

1. Vision: seeing the ball/opponent 
2. Audition: Hearing the call of a teammate/coach or hearing the ball hit the opponents racket
3. Proprioception: These senses are 3 internal methods used by a performer to pick up info

• Equilibrium or balance -> e.g. balance needed in a tennis serve or any other specific movement
• Touch -> e.g. the feel of the ball in your hands or kicking a ball with the inside of your foot
• Kinaesthesis -> the inner sense of the muscles which give automatic information about the position of joints and tension in the muscles 

The Decision Making Stage - Perceptual Mechanisms:

• Occurs in the brain and describes the process whereby the sensory input is given meaning
• Interprets information and identifies the elements that are important 
• This recognition and interpretation relies on pervious experience and the memory of that experience to help make a decision of what to do in response to the stimuli
• Perception involves the brain comparing present info with past info stored in the LTM

Perception consists of 3 main elements:

    1) Detection  2) Comparison  3) Recognition (D.C.R)

• Before the decision is made (in how to react) all the info from the display has to be simplified or there would be too much for the brain to cope with at once
• All the info is simplified into relevant and irrelevant cues through the process of selective attention 

Perception: 

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