Contextual information in situations of uncertainty: The value of explicit-information provision depends on expertise level, knowledge acquisition and prior-action congruency

Magnaguagno, Lukas; Zahno, Stephan; Kredel, Ralf; Hossner, Ernst-Joachim (2022). Contextual information in situations of uncertainty: The value of explicit-information provision depends on expertise level, knowledge acquisition and prior-action congruency. Psychology of sport and exercise, 59, p. 102109. Elsevier Science 10.1016/j.psychsport.2021.102109

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In behavioral control, contextual information is used alongside incoming sensory inputs to reduce uncertainties about the unfolding situation. However, our understanding of this weighting process is limited; particularly regarding the applied question of whether individuals should be provided with information or whether they should rather generate it by themselves. We thus compared the provision of more or less valid (i.e., “true”) contextual information with a self-generation condition by examining the performance of elite and near-elite youth handball players (N = 30 + 27) in a virtual-reality defensive task. We measured response correctness, positioning as a function of the teammates’ defensive behaviors and the degree to which the experimentally induced patterns in the teammates’ strengths were detected. The results show that providing individuals with uncertain information neither enhances nor harms performance decisively. However, valid information enhances performance in congruent situations while degrading performance in incongruent situations, more pronouncedly in elite than in near-elite players. Consequently, individuals should be provided with explicit contextual information only if (i) their expertise level is not adequate enough to rely on self-generation, (ii) the situation-specific knowledge base cannot be sufficiently self-generated, and (iii) the instructor is sufficiently certain that the explicit information actually meets the upcoming situation.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Sport Science (ISPW)
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Sport Science (ISPW) > Movement and Exercise Science

UniBE Contributor:

Magnaguagno, Lukas, Zahno, Stephan, Kredel, Ralf, Hossner, Ernst-Joachim

Subjects:

700 Arts > 790 Sports, games & entertainment

ISSN:

1469-0292

Publisher:

Elsevier Science

Language:

English

Submitter:

Edith Desideria Imthurn

Date Deposited:

12 Jan 2022 11:01

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:56

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.psychsport.2021.102109

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Bayesian integration Decision-making Contextual knowledge Virtual reality Sport games

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/162208

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/162208

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