Failures of Awareness in Sports

FAILURES   OF   AWARENESS   INSPORTS I. Introduction  Awareness   is   a   crucialcomponent   of   sports performance.  Failures of awareness can lead tomissed opportunities and errors.  Several   types   of   failures   ofawareness:  Deliberate inhibition (not afailure).  Subliminal   information (below   conscious perception).  Failure to allocate attentionproperly. II. Types of Failures of Awareness 1. Change Blindness  Participants fail to perceivechanges in an image whenattention is not focused onthat area.  Originates from the spatialabsence of attention.  Example:   Flickering images   with   unnoticedchanges. 2. Attentional Blink  A   target   stimulus   is   notconsciously   perceived when   another   target   ispresented shortly before.  Originates from a temporalabsence of attention.  Example: Missing a targetdue   to   a   brief   gap   inattention. 3. Inattentional Blindness  Failure of awareness whena   stimulus   unexpectedlyappears   while   attention   isfocused elsewhere.  Common   in   everyday   lifeand sports.  Example:   Not   noticing   anopen player while focusingon the ball. III. Insights from Sports Studies  Memmert (2006) and Furley et al.(2010)   found   that   basketballexperts   are   less   prone   toinattentional   blindness   in basketball   situations   thannovices.  Increased   perceptual   capacity   isspecific   to   expertise   in   aparticular   sport   and   doesn'tgeneralize.  Factors   influencing   failures   ofawareness in sports:

 Expertise   in   the   sportenhances detection.  More   salient   objects   aredetected more easily.  Specific   tactical instructions   may   increaseor decrease the probabilityof   detecting   unexpectedobjects.  Children up to 10 years oldare particularly susceptibleto   missing   unexpectedobjects.  Extreme   physical   arousalcan   lead   to   more   failuresof awareness. IV. Importance of Broad Attention inSports  Players   need   a   broad   focus   ofattention   to   make   tacticaldecisions   and   integrate   originalsolutions.  Recognizing   unexpectedly unmarked players is essential.  Coaches'   instructions,   whilehelpful,   can   sometimes   narrowplayers'   focus   of   attention   andreduce flexibility. V.   Increasing   the   Number   of   ActionAlternatives  The   number   of   decision-makingsolutions   increases   with   thenumber   of   game   elements   anathlete can attend to.  This enhances unpredictability foropponents   and   improves performance. VI. Conclusion  Failures   of   awareness   arecommon   in   sports   and   everydaylife.  Expertise,   salience,   tacticalinstructions,   and   arousal influence awareness.  A broad focus of attention and theability   to   recognize   unmarkedplayers are essential for successin sports.