The psychological refractory period, anticipation and motor programmes

Overview

The psychological refractory period and its use in sport, spatial and temporal anticipation and their risks, motor programmes and subroutines in a tennis serve, and how they become automatic.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is the psychological refractory period?

   Model answer

   The psychological refractory period is a delay in responding to a second stimulus that arrives while the first is being processed. The brain can deal with only one stimulus at a time.

2. 2

   Why does the psychological refractory period occur?

   Model answer

   The single channel hypothesis states that information is processed one piece at a time. A second stimulus must wait until the first is dealt with.

3. 3

   How is the psychological refractory period used in sport?

   Model answer

   A dummy or feint gives an opponent a false first stimulus. The opponent is slow to react to the real move.

4. 4

   What is anticipation?

   Model answer

   Anticipation is predicting what will happen before it happens. Anticipation reduces reaction time.

5. 5

   What is spatial anticipation?

   Model answer

   Spatial anticipation is predicting what will happen or where. A goalkeeper predicts which side a penalty will go.

6. 6

   What is temporal anticipation?

   Model answer

   Temporal anticipation is predicting when something will happen. A sprinter predicts when the gun will fire.

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