The objective of this study was to gain an understanding of expert cognition in orienteering. The British orienteering squad was interviewed (N = 17) and grounded theory was used to develop a theory of expert cognition in orienteering. A task constraint identified as central to orienteering is the requirement to manage attention to three sources of information: the map, the environment, and travel. Optimal management is constrained by limited processing resources. However, consistent with the research literature, the results reveal considerable adaptations by experts to task constraints, characterized primarily by various cognitive skills including anticipation and simplification. By anticipating the environment from the map, and by simplifying the information required to navigate, expert orienteers can circumvent processing limitations. Implications of this theory for other domains involving navigation, and for the coaching process within the sport, are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of changes in stride length on the symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) during a repeated bout of downhill running in a group of 18 men and women. Muscle tenderness, plasma creatine kinase activity (CK) and maximal voluntary isometric force were measured before and after two downhill runs, with each run separated by 5 weeks. The first downhill run was at the preferred stride frequency (PSF). Participants were then randomly allocated to one of three sex-balanced groups with equal numbers of men and women: overstride (-8% PSF), understride (+8% PSF) and normal stride frequency for the second downhill run. Stride length had no effect (P>0.05) on muscle tenderness, CK or isometric peak force. Increases in muscle tenderness (P<0.001) and CK were lower (P<0.05) following the second downhill run, although there was no difference in the pattern and extent of the strength decrement between the two runs. There were also no differences (P>0.05) in muscle tenderness, CK or the relative strength loss between the men and the women. Results suggest that the symptoms of EIMD are unaffected by gender and small alterations to the normal stride pattern during constant velocity downhill running. The observation that muscle tenderness and CK were reduced following a repeated bout of similar eccentric exercise is consistent with the phenomenon known as the 'repeated bout effect' of muscle damage.

This study explored how differences in orienteering experience are related to differences in how visual attention is allocated to the map, the environment and to travel. Twenty more experienced and 20 less experienced individuals orienteered while wearing a head-mounted video camera with microphone. The participants verbalized what they were attending to (map, environment or travel) at any given time. Each recorded film was coded at each point in time in terms of what the participant was attending to and whether the participant was moving or stationary. More experienced orienteers attended to the map markedly more while moving and spent less time stationary than less experienced orienteers. The participants' performance was significantly related to the ability to attend to the map while moving. The strategic control of attention is proposed to explain this ability. It is proposed that attentional training might enhance performance in sports characterized by multiple and dynamically varying elements.

Expert orienteers have reported using two heuristics when planning routes to points in the environment that must be located, known as 'controls'. These heuristics constitute attending to the start first and subsequently planning forward to a given control, and attending to the control first and planning backwards to the start. The aim of this study was to establish which heuristic experts use predominantly and whether novices' use of these heuristics differs from that of experts. Two methods for tracing attention were used while 20 expert and 20 novice orienteers planned routes in the laboratory. The results were used to infer the use of heuristics. The orienteers were also interviewed about planning. We found that, when planning, experts generally attend to the control first and novices to the start first. There was also some evidence that novices work forwards from the start to the control and that experts work backwards from the control to the start. From the interviews, it would appear that experts regard the location of the control as the crux of the problem and prioritize this area during planning. These results have implications for an understanding of expertise and problem-solving in sport.

No abstract

Orienteering is a navigational sport using large–scale maps (1: 15000) and a compass to locate, as quickly as possible, a series of control points in a pre–defined order. Orientation of self and map are fundamental skills in the sport of orienteering. The traditional teaching or coaching of this skill is based on a hierarchical model. This model introduces the concept of location of self by initial reference to landmarks, then routes linking individual landmarks followed by configurations of these landmarks and routes. This model quite clearly aligns with the hierarchical model of spatial reference systems suggested by Seigal & White (1975). However, it is proposed that the process-oriented model offered by Downs & Stea (1977) may be more appropriate to orienteering. The model is based on orientation and then develops through route choice, route monitoring and route recognition. Orienteering behaviour, which is based on using map and compass information to select and follow a novel route in a multi-choice route following task, appears to follow this model.

Orientation within orienteering is dependent on the use of two basic strategies; that is, either a compass or Magnetic-North-based strategy, which relies on the use of one set of information; or the use of a map and landmark-based strategy which relies on the use of at least two sets of information. Walsh and Martland 1 found that, when given the choice, young children use the compass-based strategy when following complex potentially disorientating routes.The efficacy of these two basic orientation strategies was investigated within three different orienteering environments: (i) a familiar known environment; (2) a familiar unknown environment and (3) an unfamiliar unknown environment.Subjects, age range from 9 to I O J years, completed an appropriate orienteering route in each of the environments. Individual mini-cassette recorders and tie-pin microphones were used to record data using a ' think aloud' technique as subjects followed their selected routes. Transcripts of the taped data produced a total number of uttered statements for each subject within each environment. A qualitative analysis of these statements identified the following groups of statements expressed as percentages of the total number of statements (as reported by Thomdyke and Stasz 2 ): (a) Orientation statements; (b) Relocation or error correction statements; (c) Statements about distractions; (d) Self-efficacy statements.There was a higher reported use of the compass-based strategy for orientation within the familiar known environment which supported the earlier findings of Walsh and Martland. 1 Although the percentage of compass-based orientation statements was smaller in the familiar unknown and the unfamiliar unknown environments, there was a pattern in the use of orientation strategies within these two environments. Typically, the compass-based orientation strategy was used for initial orientation at the beginning of the route and at the pre-defined control points along the route, whilst the landmark and map-based strategy was used as a means of maintaining and reinforcing orientation within the route. Relocation statements typically reported an awareness of disorientation and were generally followed by attempts to reorientate. Whilst none of the subjects used relocation statements within the familiar known environment, relocation statements were used within the familiar unknown and the unfamiliar unknown environments.This evidence suggests that both orientation strategies are used in orienteering routes, but that each strategy is used selectively depending on the environment. These findings clearly have implications for the sport of orienteering -particularly the introduction of basic skills to young performers. They support the argument that is essential to introduce the map and compass simultaneously and that relocation and orientation skills should be coached concurrently.

Contemporary evidence suggests that young children are able to use maps in route-following tasks if the map is oriented throughout the task, and that orientation within route-following tasks relies on the use of two basic strategies, i.e., one based on the compass, and one based on landmarks. An initial experiment with children aged 7 to 10 years showed that 8-to-10-year-old children have naturally-developed orienting strategies, whereas 7- to-8-year-old-children have not. In a second experiment, it was shown that children aged 7 to 8 years could learn to use the two basic orientation strategies. The authors found, in a small qualitative study, that children aged 9 to 11 years used both strategies selectively, depending upon the environment. In familiar, known environments, the use of a compass-based strategy for orientation was high; whereas in familiar but unknown environments, and unfamiliar unknown environments, orientation strategies were used selectively: typically, the compass-based orientation strategy was used for initial orientation at the beginning of the route and at predetermined checkpoints along the route; the landmark based strategy was used for maintaining and reinforcing orientation within the route.