The use of heuristics during route planning by expert and novice orienteers

Abstract

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.

Comparison of Three Instructional Approaches to Enhance Tactical Knowledge in Volleyball among University Students

“…Accordingly, Simon (1955Simon ( , 1957 proposed the notion of bounded rationality and introduced simple "rule of thumb" strategies (i.e., heuristics) for decision-making to make the right decision even with limited time of cognitive ability. Eccles, Walsh, and Ingledew (2002) revealed a difference between experts and novices in the use of heuristics in route planning. The performance of novices could be improved by means of a training program, based on the experts' behavior, helping them in locating and using specific cues in the environment.…”

How do they make it look so easy? The expert orienteer’s cognitive advantage

“…The basis for this illustration is a series of studies by Eccles and colleagues (Eccles, 2006(Eccles, , 2008Eccles, Walsh, & Ingledew, 2002a, 2002b, 2006Eccles, Ward, & Woodman, 2009;Macquet, Eccles, & Barraux, 2012), which are the only extant studies concerned specifically with the psychological basis of expertise in orienteering. Lacking from the research literature at this time is an integration of these studies that shows how various performance strategies identified in the studies are used together to circumvent processing limitations.…”

Interactive cartographic route descriptions

“…While in locations where one has significant prior knowledge there is no requirement to infer additional information. The above process of drawing additional information from a base-map is similar to the task orienteers perform when planning a route between locations (known as controls) on an orienteering map [16]. Orienteering maps differ from the Interactive Route Description due to the fact that they only specify controls and not a route between them.…”