Memory & INfo Processing

Information processing in sport is when ‘a sports performer interprets and judges the information around them then chooses and puts into action a sports skill’.

A number of researchers have offered ‘models’ or theories to explain information processing. The models attempt to explain, in a straightforward diagrammatic way, what is actually an extremely complicated process. Having an understanding of information processing is helpful for teaching and learning skills in sport.

Stimuli/input Data

Stimuli is any information available to your thought processes. This can be from within the body’s internal receptors or from the environment. At any point in time there are usually millions of ‘bits’ of information available. If the baseball fielder is playing in-front of a crowd of 60,000 people there will be many sounds and smells surrounding them and they will receive lots of information from internal receptors in the body (e.g. balance, touch receptors). Obviously the ball being hit; the sound of the bat striking the ball and the ball’s flight are important stimuli for the fielder.

Sense Organs

All living organisms receive information from their environment. In humans sense organs, include the ears, the eyes, the balance mechanism in the inner ear and the touch or pressure receptors in the skin. Information is passed via nerves to the CNS and the brain. Relating ‘sense organs’ to our catching example, the main organs used would be; vision (watching the ball), proprioception (identifying how the body is positioned) and audition (the sound of the bat on the ball or calls from team-mates).

Selective Attention

Most models show less arrows linking the sense organs to the perceptual mechanism than what is coming in and this reflects the process of selective attention. Selective attention involves focusing on, and trying to interpret relevant information whilst ignoring or not focusing on irrelevant cues. This is sometimes called ‘filtering’ the relevant information. It is not possible for the brain to process all the information it is provided with. For a player making a catch, position of team-mates sitting in the dugout or the chanting of the crowd is not important to perform the skill. However, the ball, where his/her closest team-mates are, how balanced he/she is and the position of his/her body and limbs are all important stimuli.

Response Selection/Decision Making

Response selection or decision making means athletes must select the correct skill to use for the situation they are in. Once the player has decided how the ball is travelling he/she must decide which technique or motor programme to execute. Will they use an underhand or overhand catching technique? Do they need to dive full length to reach the ball? Once the decision has been made then the response must be carried out.

Motor Programming and the Muscular System

Motor programming is the role of the brain in selecting the correct muscles to work, in what order, what type of contractions are needed and how much force is required. To catch the ball the skill must be executed, sometimes modifying the motor programme slightly to suit the situation (schema theory). Firstly the order of the muscular contractions must be determined then impulses sent to the muscles so that they work in the correct order whilst using the right amount of force to move the body and limbs into correct positions. Once the nerve impulses are sent to the muscles then skill is carried out.

Feedback

Most representations show that the model proceeds from left to right, but there are a number of arrows pointing from right to left. These represent the concept of feedback which is when information about how the skill is being executed can be used to adjust the action. Feedback that is available during the performance of a skill can lead to modifications that can improve its accuracy. In some skills there is enough time for feedback (see open versus closed loop control) to be involved. Feedback can be intrinsic from the proprioceptors, or external from the surroundings. In the catching example, if the player had made incorrect perceptions of how the ball was travelling or if the player’s foot slipped on a patch of mud then the skill would need to be modified or the player may need to select a new motor programme.

Whiting identified similar processes in information processing but used different terms to describe the processes that are involved.

• Input date from display – this is the information from the environment and within the body that bombards our senses.
• Receptor systems – this is the same as the ‘sense organs’ in Welford’s model.
• Perceptual Mechanisms – Information in the short-term sensory store is either ignored or filtered out, whereas some information is ‘selectively attended’ to and passed into the short-term memory. Perception occurs when relevant information is interpreted and judged, making sense of the information available. For example a badminton player may evaluate where the opponent is standing before deciding to serve to the front or back of their service box.
• Translatory mechanism – This part of the model is where decision making occurs. A skill is chosen depending on the environmental and internal information that the brain received and the motor programme is retrieved from the long-term memory and put into action.
• Effector mechanism and Muscular system – This is when nerve impulses are sent via the motor neurones for the relevant motor units within the muscular system for them to contract. The muscles must work in a particular order and create just the right amount of force to carry out the skill successfully.
• Feedback – This is the same as in Welford’s model.

Having a good knowledge of how a person’s memory works is essential for teachers and coaches. It is needed for understanding of how information processing models work as well as for teaching and learning movement skills effectively. Our memory not only involves the storage of information and the length it is retained for, but also the process of retrieval.

Short-Term Sensory Store

The short-term sensory store (STSS) is where information from our sense organs is received. There are many different sense organs, which means there are many items of information available to us at any particular moment. It is thought that there is a STSS for each different sensory modality (e.g. auditory, visual, kinaesthesis) so it is at the STSS that the process of selective attention occurs, in which irrelevant information is ignored and the important information is ‘filtered’ and passed to the short term memory (STM). The unused information is discarded and will not be remembered. It is estimated that information in the STSS will only be available for a few seconds unless it is passed to the STM.

Short Term Memory

Short term memory (STM) is also referred to as our working memory. It is here that information is consciously ‘thought about’. Whilst you are reading this page, information is passing from the STSS into the STM as you are selectively attending to this stimuli (if you’re not paying attention then there is no learning going on!) Typically the STM memory can hold 7 ± 2 ‘bits’ of information for up to 30 to 60 seconds. Whilst held in the STM the information can be acted upon by the performer but if not used it will be discarded. To retain the information it has to be transferred to the long term memory (LTM). However, repeating information regularly will keep it in the STM until it is transferred to the LTM or not needed any more and forgotten. When we ‘retrieve’ information from the LTM it is brought into the STM or working memory. For example if you need to write your address on a form then you will retrieve the information from your LTM and ‘think about it’ before writing it down.

The storage capacity of the STM can be expanded by the process of ‘chunking’. This is a process by which information can be associated with other pieces of information to expand the STM capacity. A simple example is how we remember a telephone number; it is chunked together into the dialling code, then usually two groups of 3 or 4 numbers. There are three chunks of information enabling us to recall 11 digits.

Long Term Memory (LTM)

As the title long term memory suggests, information can be retained in the LTM for a long time. Some think that some memories can be stored and retrieved throughout our lifetime or indefinitely. The LTM is a store of past experiences, possibly of unlimited amounts of information. Think of all the letters, numbers, equations, songs, names and words you know! Motor programmes are also stored in the LTM, so think how many different skills you can perform from the different sports and physical activities you have participated in.

Selective attention

Selective attention is when mental focus is given to information, ignoring or discarding other information. The ability to selectively attend to certain cues and ‘filter out’ or ignore irrelevant stimuli is important for many sports skills, particularly those requiring fast reactions.

Rehearsal determines the retention of material in the LTM. Rehearsal is a result of practice and the significance of the stimuli. If an experience is sufficiently powerful it may occur once and be recalled for a long time. If an action is practised many times, then every time it is repeated and enters the STM it will be transferred to the LTM. This is a process of rehearsal. Over time constant repetition of an action is refined and develops into a skill.

A number of ways to help store information in the LTM are listed below;

1. Rehearsal/repetition: This is one of the most important methods for remembering facts or definitions. A teacher will remember many of these, simply because they repeat them to classes many times throughout the year. When learning a new skill, often the movement pattern must be repeated many times before it becomes a habit. When learning a dance or gymnastics sequence, repeating the skills in the correct order will help transfer this information into the LTM.

2. You may also see elite performers mentally rehearse before a competition to ensure they can retrieve memories from the LTM during the competition. Mentally rehearsing after training may also help storage in the LTM in the first place.

3. Linking new memories with old ones can help to ensure they are stored in the LTM; especially if they are vivid and/or meaningful memories. Your teachers will often do this when they introduce a new theory. They will draw upon previous incidents that may have happened in an elite sports match or in one of your PE lessons.

4. If new memories are associated with an emotional experience they are more likely to be remembered. For example if a coach makes a session fun, it is more likely that the memories will be strong from the session. Similarly, when learning a new martial arts skill, if a performer makes a mistake and hurts themselves they are more likely to remember not to do the same thing again.

When a sprinter is on the blocks at the start of a 100 metre race they listen for the sound of the starter’s gun. On hearing the signal the sprinter does not move immediately. There is a short delay while they process the information (the stimulus), before they produce a response. This is termed ‘reaction time’. As soon as the nerve impulses reach the muscles to drive the sprinter out of the blocks, reaction time ends and ‘movement time’ begins. Movement time ends when the action has finished. For the 100m sprinter, this could be the end of the race but it is sometimes measured over the first 5 or 10 m.

Hick’s Law

The 100m sprint example provided above is an example of simple reaction time, a single response to a single stimulus. The sprinter, on the blocks, waits for one stimulus, and once the stimulus ‘goes bang’, the reaction is to drive out of the blocks. The sprinter would look stupid if there was any other reaction. As there is only one item of information to process, reaction time is quick. However in an invasion game like basketball, a player will receive many stimuli when they are in possession of the ball. In this situation the term choice reaction time is used. An example of this would be in a 3 versus 2 situation during a fast break. There a numerous possible situations; who is dribbling the ball, where are the supporting attackers positioned, where team-mate are standing. There are also a number of possible responses meaning there might be different responses to the same situation. Hick discovered that the greater the number of stimuli and response outcomes the slower reaction time is.

Psychological Refractory Period (PRP)

A common situation in invasion games is the use of a ‘fake’ or ‘dummy’ by an attacker. Typically this involves a 1 v 1 situation where the attacker fakes to go one way (stimulus 1) and then changes direction (stimulus 2) moving off in this new direction, often leaving the defender behind. From the defender’s perspective, they start to information process the first movement. They will perceive and interpret the movement and then start to make a decision about what skill to execute before beginning to formulate the motor programme. The single channel hypothesis suggests that the processing of the first stimulus must be first be ‘cleared’ before the second one can be attended to. This delay in time is called the PRP and in sports situations it is usually 0.2 to 0.3 seconds. Knowledge of this time frame helps to explain why the distance of the fake from the defender is crucial. If a rugby player performs a side-step move 10 m away from the defender there is still time to clear the first (fake) movement, and then process the new stimulus. However, if the attacker performs the side-step 3-4 metres from the defender then there is much less chance of being tackled.

Information is stored in the LTM and used to modify a motor programme. Schema are a set of rules that determine the decisions made about how a motor programme will be modified so that it is executed successfully.

Schema is used to explain how motor programmes can be adapted in different situations, even novel ones. The main idea behind schema theory is that a motor programme can be modified to suit the particular situation that a person is in. Take shooting in open play in a basketball match as an example. There are many different positions a player can take a shot from, sometimes opposed, sometimes with a free shot. For example shooting from distance usually requires more leg drive to jump, adding more power so the ball reaches the hoop, whereas shooting close to a defender may mean a player takes ‘fade-away’ jump shot. Schmidt claimed that schema were stored in the long-term memory and these were used to modify the skill depending on the situation.

Practical Example of Schema Theory

A shot in football will be used to explain the four components of schema theory:

Recall schema consist of two aspects, initial conditions and response specification.

Initial conditions – this relates to the situation at the start of a movement. For example, our body position and the environment around us. This latter point may involve how the ball is travelling, the opponents’ positions and where on the pitch we are shooting from.

Response specification – is the information relating to what you need to do to score. This may mean shooting around a defender by putting swerve on the ball or simply sending the ball through a gap between two defenders. It is how the motor programme will be modified to be successful (depending on the initial conditions).

Recognition schema consists of two conditions, sensory consequences and response outcome.

Sensory consequences – In essence this is the same as knowledge of performance (see Guidance & Feedback ). It refers to kinaesthetic feedback we get as we perform the skill.

Response outcome is the result – This is the same as knowledge of results. It relates to how the ball travelled. Did it fly in the direction and with the pace that we wanted it to or did it hit a defender or fly straight to the goalkeeper?

We link the two recognition schema to modify the motor programme the next time we are in a similar situation. For example if you saw the ball fly over the bar and felt that you were leaning backwards, the next time you shoot you may focus on keeping your head over the ball as you struck the shot to keep it low.

Developing Schema

In order to develop schema you must be placed in a number of different situations to form memories from the successes and failures in these situations. For example before a netball match a shooter will practice shooting from different positions on the court so they can get a ‘feel’ for the ball. Variable practice is essential for developing schema. This is why coaches in hockey will set up a number of drills to develop shooting. Players must learn how to modify their shooting technique with the ball rolling in different directions and with different amounts of pressure from opponents. The players will thus practice in a number of different situations. With each attempt at a skill they will learn from their successes and mistakes and use the knowledge gained to refine future performances.