Markers of Expertise in Sport and Physical Activity: Triangulated Approaches

The aim of this project is to adopt a mixed methods approach to determine the various factors – innate, learnt, and environmental – that ultimately contribute to skill acquisition and/or expertise within a specified domain.
As part of the LEAP Lab research group at Brunel University London (https://www.brunel.ac.uk/sport-health-and-exercise-sciences/research/LEAP-Lab), the aim of the successful candidate will be to understand and improve the performance and learning of complex, dynamic skills across a domain of their choice, ranging from elite sport performance to everyday activities such as driving, cycling and navigating one’s environment safely.
The project will have one or more of the three following objectives:
1. To examine the factors (e.g., perceptual decision making and psychomotor abilities) that underpin skilled performance of an identified motor skill;
2. To explore the mediating effects of factors such as anxiety, attention, pressure, physiological load and personality traits, on execution of the skill; and
3. To determine how we may accelerate and/or enhance learning of the skills.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to use a variety of techniques including gaze tracking, performance analysis, psychometric testing, and motion capture; other techniques (e.g., TMS) may be available to candidates who can demonstrate suitable experience. This aside, the successful candidate will receive training as required. The target population(s) and specific measures will be determined jointly by the candidate and the supervisory team.

The supervisory team is made up of Dr David Broadbent whose research focuses on perceptual-cognitive skills in sport, the impact of anxiety on performance, and the use of performance analysis in sport; Dr Dan Bishop, an HCPC-registered Practitioner Psychologist whose research profile includes work on neural and psychological markers of expert perception and decision-making, optimisation of attention, and observational learning; Dr Adam Cocks, whose research interests are centred on the control of attention, vision, and movement specifically in older adults/clinical populations; and Dr Alexander Nowicky, whose expertise lies in the use of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques to study human voluntary control of movement and neuroplasticity.