Skilled performers extract and process postural information from an opponent during anticipation more effectively than their less-skilled counterparts. In contrast, the role and importance of contextual information in anticipation has received only minimal attention. We evaluate the importance of contextual information in anticipation and examine the underlying perceptual-cognitive processes. We present skilled and less-skilled tennis players with normal video or animated footage of the same rallies. In the animated condition, sequences were created using player movement and ball trajectory data, and postural information from the players was removed, constraining participants to anticipate based on contextual information alone. Participants judged ball bounce location of the opponent's final occluded shot. The 2 groups were more accurate than chance in both display conditions with skilled being more accurate than less-skilled (Exp. 1) participants. When anticipating based on contextual information alone, skilled participants employed different gaze behaviors to less-skilled counterparts and provided verbal reports of thoughts which were indicative of more thorough evaluation of contextual information (Exp. 2). Findings highlight the importance of both postural and contextual information in anticipation and indicate that perceptual-cognitive expertise is underpinned by processes that facilitate more effective processing of contextual information, in the absence of postural information.

Despite receiving much public attention in recent years, the mental health status of jockeys has not been established. This study investigated the incidence of common mental health disorders in jockeys. Amateur (n=74) and professional (n=42) jockeys completed an online anonymous questionnaire incorporating validated self-reported measurement tools to assess the prevalence of psychological distress, depression, anxiety, social phobia, perceived stress and self-esteem. Personal and lifestyle characteristics were also reported. Fifty four percent of jockeys were experiencing symptoms of at least one of general psychological distress, depression, general anxiety disorder or social anxiety. Professional jockeys displayed significantly greater mean scores on measures of psychological distress (p<0.01), depression (p<0.05), anxiety (p<0.05) and perceived stress (p<0.01). No difference was present in measures between professional flat and jump jockeys. Professional jockeys were classified as displaying symptoms of depression (mean score 20.29; 57.1% at or above threshold of 16) and perceived stress (mean score 20.24; 52.4% at or above threshold of 20). Current injury, social anxiety or high levels of perceived stress increased the likelihood of displaying depressive symptoms in the jockey sample. With a high prevalence of depression and perceived stress evident in professional jockeys, mental health support strategies should be implemented with specific focus on stress management and dealing with injury. Future research should further investigate factors that

Players cannot accurately judge service speed, and by providing this information in the form of augmented feedback, a player can enhance the process of learning to serve faster with training. Players should therefore use augmented feedback on service speed when training to serve faster.

In dynamic, temporally constrained tasks, individuals often need to anticipate what will happen next prior to information becoming available within the environment. In such situations, the availability of contextual information can facilitate anticipation, often in conjunction with postural information. While many researchers have identified the specific sources of postural information facilitating anticipation, few have investigated the specific sources of contextual information employed. In two experiments, we presented skilled and less-skilled tennis players with animations of rallies from real matches that omitted access to postural information from the opponent, constraining participants to anticipate based on contextual information alone. In Experiment 1, participants anticipated the outcome of an opponent's shot under three conditions in which the sequence length (i.e., number of shots in a rally) preceding the same occluded shot was varied. Participants anticipated shot direction more accurately when the preceding shot sequence was presented than not. In Experiment 2, we presented animations that depicted the ball, the players, or both, in either dynamic or still form. Those conditions in which only the ball was depicted yielded the lowest response accuracy scores. It appears that information from the player and ball motion is required to provide the context under which skilled performers can consciously pick up and utilise information to anticipate more accurately than their less-skilled counterparts.