Perceptual training in Beach-Volleyball defence: no beneficial effects of colour-cue interventions

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André Klostermann and Ernst-Joachim Hossner

Institute of Sport Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

Citation

Klostermann, A., Hossner, E. (2023). Perceptual training in Beach-Volleyball defence: no beneficial effects of colour-cue interventions. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 54(3), 248-268. doi:10.7352/IJSP.2023.54.248

Abstract

The colour cue method has been proposed as a perceptual-training intervention in sports. However, the empirical evidence is ambiguous, possibly ascribed to an insufficient match between training and test conditions. Thus, in the test phases of Experiment 1, participants responded either verbally or with a mimicked action to beach-volleyball attacks after having trained with colour-cued gaze paths that were extracted from experts whom them selves had to respond verbally or actively. In Experiment 2, conditions were further matched by making participants mimic actions already over the intervention phase. In contradiction to the expectation that learning-enhancing effects appear for perfectly matched training-testing conditions at least, no differences were revealed, neither between the colour-cue in terventions nor between colour-cueing and the control condition of just watching the same videos. However, gaze was reliably affected by response modes, meaning that gaze behaviour substantially changes if either verbal or active responses are required

Keywords: Perceptual-cognitive expertise, Decision making, Gaze learning, visual attention, Perception

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