COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS PART 10

The 10th and final installment in this series again looks at stage 3 in cognition of elite footballers.

If you have read this series deeply enough then you should have come across so many pointers on how players become elite and you should now be able to devise training plans in accordance with the content from these posts.

Today we look at attentional reorienting, perceptual learning and metacognition to finish off with.

• Outcome assessment has other effects on cognitive process than modification of automatic action tendencies such as those related to attentional/perceptual processes in stage 1 as well as executive control over response processes in stage 2
• Dopamine feedback mechanisms also influence orientation behavior in stage 1
• Given the close coupling between exploratory behavior/attentional focus, these behavioral modifications imply changes in attentional processes such as a stronger tendency to monitor a specific spatial direction if something unexpected just occurred from there however the outcome assessment also has effects on perceptual processes related to pattern recognition/anticipation
• Recognisation/prediction of play depends on accumulated experience from infinite individual situations and every time you perceive an outcome, a small modification is made with the long term result being the difference between skilled/lesser skilled players in terms of pattern recognition/anticipation
• Executive control processes at stage 2 are also influenced by outcome assessment, specifically the risk taking aspect of response selection which is largely dependent on confidence levels at the time which are closely related to metacognition processes, defined as the ability to monitor the accuracy of your own cognitive/behavioral functions
• Confidence levels for given abilities are dynamically modified by individual experiences where outcome assessment can provide necessary feedback to continuously modify (positively/negatively) the player’s confidence and thereby the tendencies to select particular actions