Opponent-related probability information may facilitate anticipation, yet understanding is limited regarding how such information is integrated with kinematic cues as an opponent's action unfolds. Here, in a video-based experiment we examined how probability information about an opponent's serve tendencies influences tennis players' anticipation of serve outcome. Thirty-two skilled male players anticipated the direction of temporally occluded serves under conditions in which opponents either displayed no directional tendency (i.e., 50% left and right) or a pronounced tendency (i.e., 80% right). Between sets, participants received information about the opponent's purported serve distribution (50:50 or 20:80), which could thus be either congruent or incongruent with the opponent's actual behaviour. Results revealed that probability information influenced response behaviour primarily when it actually reflected an existing serve tendency. In these cases, players increasingly anticipated the preferred serve direction from the first to second set. This effect was most pronounced when kinematic information was limited, suggesting stronger reliance on probability information early in the unfolding action. Correspondingly, response accuracy increased only when probability information indicated a pronounced tendency and when this matched the opponent's true serve distribution. When probability information was balanced or incongruent with the opponent's serve distribution, response behaviour and accuracy remained largely unchanged. Collectively, these findings indicate that probability information benefits anticipation only when it reliably signals an opponent's action preferences, and that reliance on such information is particularly strong under conditions of uncertainty in kinematic information. This supports recent accounts of dynamic information integration for anticipation.
In the debate on the legitimacy of public spending on elite sport, governments and sports representatives emphasise the potential positive impacts of elite sport on society. One of the most prominent arguments refers to values and value learning in and through elite sport. In this systematic review, we synthesise empirical research on (1) which values different stakeholders attribute to elite sport, (2) the extent to which elite sport shapes values and value orientations, and (3) what conditions must be in place for perceived and actual impacts of elite sports on values and value learning (not) to occur. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 Guidelines, we searched five electronic databases (Web of Science/Social Science Citation Index, Scopus, ERIC/ProQuest, SPORTDiscus, APA PsychInfo), complemented by a reference and citation screening. Two independent reviewers screened all identified studies for eligibility. Of the 10,220 search results, 26 articles were included in the final analysis. Their methodological quality was assessed by using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). The studies indicate that elite sport is perceived as having an influence on performance and social values, while the evidence of actual effects is far more ambivalent. Instead of inherently conveying values, the influence of elite sport and elite athletes seems to be situational, depending on various success and failure conditions. Despite the importance of elite sport for value learning in public debate, the existing literature offers currently a very fragmented picture, with relatively few studies from different academic disciplines offering mixed findings. Much more research and clearer conceptual work is need to better evaluate the role of sport for values and value learning.
Coaches have to make far-reaching decisions, including identifying young athletes as talented and selecting them for developmental pathways. To date, processes underlying these decisions are poorly understood. Here, the iCodes model (Jekel, Glöckner, Bröder, 2018) and its two core hypotheses—the validity hypothesis and the attraction search effect—were applied to investigate how coaches select young players in table tennis in a simulated talent selection situation. According to the validity hypothesis, coaches are expected to use information in their talent selection process that they consider to be most important. Additionally, it is expected that coaches will be influenced by the information they have already received when searching for more information (i.e., the attraction search effect). The present study found no evidence to support the validity hypothesis. However, support for the attraction search effect was found, as positive attributes influenced coaches’ information-search behavior. Despite experimental constraints, this study offers preliminary insights into processes underlying the “coach’s eye,” paving the way for future research in talent selection contexts.
Purpose This paper develops a systems-theoretical account of suicide as a terminal form of psychic self-reference. We aim to move beyond risk factor and dysfunction models by reconstructing suicide as a structurally coherent event within autopoietic psychic systems. We ask how, and under what conditions, a psychic system ceases its own operability when its self-referential dynamics become saturated across operational, reflective and reflexive levels. Design/methodology/approach The article offers a systems-theoretical reconstruction of suicide applying Luhmann’s theory of autopoietic systems to psychic systems, differentiating three forms of self-reference and analyzing their interrelations. Findings The analysis suggests that suicide can be described as a structurally saturated configuration of self-reference in which the psychic system continues to operate while at the same time configuring the conditions for its own cessation. Basal, reflective and reflexive self-reference converge into a closed loop that no longer generates meaningful variation. Suicide thus appears as a paradoxical terminal event: the point at which the system’s autopoiesis succeeds so consistently in reproducing its own form that this very success results in the completion and shutdown of further operations. Originality/value The paper provides what is, to our knowledge, the first coherent systems-theoretical theory of suicide grounded in the concept of autopoietic psychic systems. By reconstructing suicide as structurally saturated self-reference, it offers a novel conceptual vocabulary for suicidology. At the same time, it demonstrates how a shift in psychological theory – from substance-based notions of the psyche to systems-theoretical accounts – can be translated into a formally rigorous description of a paradigmatic phenomenon at the limits of psychic self-reference.
Cognitive maps of the environment are initially encoded in a fragile form susceptible to interference, but they can stabilize over time—a process called “consolidation”. This study investigated whether consolidation is a gradual or an all-or-none process. In the main condition, participants formed first a map of environment A, then a map of environment B, and then returned to A (sequence: A1 -> B -> A2). Performance increased from A1 to A2, but this increase was smaller than in a control condition where B was replaced by a pause filled with unrelated activities (sequence: A1 -> pause -> A2). Adding a pause after A1 in the main condition (sequence: A1 -> pause -> B -> A2) had no substantiable effect on performance. In contrast, adding a replica of A1 (sequence: A1 -> AR -> B -> A2) improved performance so that it no longer differed significantly from the control condition. This pattern of findings is consistent with the view that (1) cognitive maps consolidate gradually rather than abruptly, and (2) consolidation proceeds during task learning but not during pauses filled with other activities.
