COGNITIVE PROCESS IN SPORTS

CHAPTER III

COGNITIVE PROCESS IN SPORTS

Cognition: It refers to processing information in the covert physic-psychological systems of the man.

Cognition involves all the process by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recollect, and used (neisser,1967)

It includes such complex mental activities as using thinking, remembering, conceptualizing, imagining, learning, and information processing.

Success of an athlete in the arena of competitive sports depends to a great extent on his or her cognitive functions.

For overpowering the rival in the hours of the contest, sports man requires correct goal setting, good decision making, and accurate perception, retention of motor – learning skills, and developing plans.

Sensation: the stimulation of sensory receptors and the transmission of sensory information to the nervous system are called sensation.

e.g.: sportspersons receive information from the coach/game situation by means of sensory reception.

All our contact with other human beings is mediated by senses.

Information reaches the brain by the sensory receptors and neural pathway.

When we understand the stimuli it does not remain sensation, but changes into perception

Environment stimuli act upon the human nervous system and arouses responses.

After the stimulus is received in the sense organ it must be transmitted through the nervous system to brain where it is coded and categorized.

Information is received by means of sensory reception. There are four kinds of receptors

a)Extroceptor – (located near the surface of the skin)

Heat /cold/pressure.

b) interceptor- (located in the internal organ)-hunger

c) proprioceptor-(located in muscles and joints)

d) Distance receptor – (located in the eyes and ears)

Information about distance.

Perception: Perception is the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world.

E.g. perceiving ball as ball.

When we attend to a stimulus, the sense impression will be interpreted by the respective sensory area of the cortex of the brain.

Brain organizes the transmitted sensory coded message into some meaningful pattern.

Perception includes receiving, organizing and processing of information.

Information is sorted out in the brain and becomes the foundation for decision making.

Athlete’s perception of the situation in the sport will determine the degree of the success.

Visual perception – judging the height (up-down) width (left –right) and distance (near-far) of object

Auditory perception –

Tactile perception:

Kinesthetic perception

Time perception –

Spatial perception –

Depth perception –

Stages of information processing

Input

Output

Decision making

In the first stage, sensory input, involves selecting relevant information from the surroundings.

In the stage two, this information forms the basis of decision –making process .in stage three response will be selected.

After the response, feed back can be used to amend any incorrect movements.

Thewelford model

The display is the sporting environment from which information is selected.

e.g,court,umpire,crowd,and opposition

Sense organs pick up the required information from the display(from sports setting )

Seeing the flight of the ball.

proprioceptors help to provide the sense of balance, such as balance of the feet when preparing to perform particular skill, sense of touch,(feel of the rocket in the hand ) and sense of kinaesthesis(inner feeling of tension within the muscles and joints).

a decision on the appropriate response is made in the perceptual mechanisms.

once the decision taken on the appropriate action is made , Impulses are sent to the working muscles via network of nerves called the effector mechanisms.

On receiving an impulse, the muscles required to perform the movement begin to contract and repose ,

As this response is being performed, various forms of feedback can be used to detect and correct errors in the environment,

feed back: