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How do they make it look so easy? The expert orienteer’s cognitive advantage a

b

David W. Eccles & Guler Arsal a

Sport Programme, School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, Durham, UK

b

Independent Scholar, Canakkale, Turkey Published online: 26 Aug 2014.

To cite this article: David W. Eccles & Guler Arsal (2014): How do they make it look so easy? The expert orienteer’s cognitive advantage, Journal of Sports Sciences, DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2014.951953 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2014.951953

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Journal of Sports Sciences, 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2014.951953

How do they make it look so easy? The expert orienteer’s cognitive advantage

DAVID W. ECCLES1 & GULER ARSAL2 1

Sport Programme, School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, Durham, UK and 2Independent Scholar, Canakkale, Turkey

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(Accepted 3 August 2014)

Abstract Expertise in sport can appear so extraordinary that it is difficult to imagine how “normal” individuals may achieve it. However, in this review, we show that experts in the sport of orienteering, which requires on-foot navigation using map and compass through wild terrain, can make the difficult look easy because they have developed a cognitive advantage. Specifically, they have acquired knowledge of cognitive and behavioural strategies that allow them to circumvent natural limitations on attention. Cognitive strategies include avoiding peaks of demand on attention by distributing the processing of map information over time and reducing the need to attend to the map by simplifying the navigation required to complete a race. Behavioural strategies include reducing the visual search required of the map by physically arranging and rearranging the map display during races. It is concluded that expertise in orienteering can be partly attributed to the circumvention of natural limitations on attention achieved via the employment of acquired cognitive and behavioural strategies. Thus, superior performance in sport may not be the possession of only a privileged few; it may be available to all aspiring athletes. Keywords: attention, orienteering, perceptual-cognitive skill, practice, navigation, skill acquisition

Consider the slick handling of the All Blacks’ backline or Gabby Douglas’ poise on the beam. It is fascinating to observe how experts make the difficult look easy. The objective of this article is to illustrate that expert orienteers are able to attain their high level of performance partly because they have developed a cognitive advantage. Specifically, they have acquired knowledge of cognitive and behavioural strategies that allow them to circumvent natural limitations on attention. While the circumvention of processing limitations is a concept central to an understanding of expertise (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Römer, 1993), research illustrating this concept in relation to sporting expertise is scant. As such, we provide a comprehensive illustration of this concept in relation to the sport of orienteering. Research on expertise has important functions (Williams, Ford, Eccles, & Ward, 2011). It provides a basis for determining effective modes of instruction and practice/training and augments the talent search and developmental processes. Expertise research also has a motivational function. To the neophyte, expert athletes’ performance standards can appear so extraordinary that it is tempting to view them largely as the product of innate talent (Ericsson, Nandagopal, & Roring, 2009).

However, if researchers are able to identify (a) that these standards can be explained, at least in part, by the use of learned strategies and (b) how these strategies are learned, then the initial developmental steps to expertise appear more accessible and thus achieving expertise more realistic (cf. Dweck, 2012). The circumvention of processing limitations is a fundamental notion within the literature concerning expertise (Ericsson et al., 1993; Salthouse, 1991). Reviews of expertise research within and beyond sport have established that general mental attributes such as IQ are poor predictors of performance in a specific domain (Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996). In contrast, there is considerable evidence of differences between differentially skilled performers in how information from the performer’s domain is processed. Experts attend, perceive, encode and retrieve information differently from their less-skilled counterparts. The result of these differences is that experts are able to circumvent limitations on information processing imposed by basic human visual and neural systems (Ericsson et al., 1993; Salthouse, 1991). For example, when compared to novices, experts in fastball sports selectively attend to environmental cues available

Correspondence: David W. Eccles, Sport Programme, School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, 42 Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HN, UK. E-mail: [email protected] © 2014 Taylor & Francis

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D. W. Eccles & G. Arsal

early in a movement made by an opponent (e.g. the movement of a cricket bowler’s arm) that afford prediction of the subsequent outcome of that movement (e.g. the type of bowl). By contrast, novices attend to other environmental cues that occur later in a movement made by an opponent and are less diagnostic of the opponent’s intended movement outcome (McRobert, Ward, Eccles, & Williams, 2011; Williams et al., 2011). As such, experts in fastball sports are able to prepare responses to opponents’ movements earlier than novices, which effectively allows experts to circumvent general limits on reaction time (Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996). The principal cause of differences in how experts and less-skilled performers process information from their domains is time spent practising. Typically, experts have undertaken many years of deliberate practice in their domain (Ericsson et al., 1993). This preparation leads to the development of cognitive skills and strategies that enhance the efficiency with which information from their domain is processed. It also leads to increases in domain-specific knowledge and adaptations to memory that afford rapid and flexible encoding and retrieval of domain-specific information during performance (Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995; McPherson, 1999). These adaptations support rapid and reliable performance mediation processes (e.g. monitoring and evaluation) during performance. Experts’ enhanced performance mediation processes govern when and where to apply the skills and strategies that afford efficient information processing during performance. Having reviewed the extant research literature concerning the expert’s circumvention of processing limitations, we now provide a comprehensive illustration of this concept in sport via a review of studies of expertise in orienteering. The basis for this illustration is a series of studies by Eccles and colleagues (Eccles, 2006, 2008; Eccles, Walsh, & Ingledew, 2002a, 2002b, 2006; Eccles, Ward, & Woodman, 2009; Macquet, Eccles, & Barraux, 2012), which are the only extant studies concerned specifically with the psychological basis of expertise in orienteering. Lacking from the research literature at this time is an integration of these studies that shows how various performance strategies identified in the studies are used together to circumvent processing limitations. Thus, this is the goal of the review that follows. The review is narrative in form because the studies are complimentary in nature and build on one another across the study series. Review of research on expertise in orienteering Orienteering incorporates highly physical and cognitive tasks. The sport involves foot-racing through unfamiliar wild terrain, requiring good aerobic

fitness. The race course involves up to 25 “control” locations that are each marked in the terrain by a flag. The orienteer must navigate via these controls in a particular order using map and compass, which involves complex cognitive processes. The distance from one control to the next is termed a leg. Controls are denoted by circles printed on a topographical map. The map is provided seconds before the race begins, which means the orienteer is only able to plan a route via the controls from the map during the race. Eccles et al. (2002a) developed a grounded theory of expert cognition in orienteering by conducting interviews with an entire national orienteering squad. Central to the theory is that orienteering involves a key task constraint, which is that successful performance requires visual attention to three sources of information: the map (which within this paper includes the compass), the environment and travel. Attending to the map is necessary because it contains information about the control locations and the terrain through which the orienteer must navigate to locate the controls. Attending to the environment is necessary to compare terrain features in the environment with their mapped representations. Attending to travel means attending to the ground underfoot while running and is necessary to avoid trips and collisions. However, attending simultaneously to the map, environment and travel is problematic. Obtaining information from the map, in particular, places considerable demands on visual attention because identifying map symbols, which are small, requires fine perceptual discriminations. Thus, attending to the map requires a significant withdrawal of attention from the environment and travel. Eccles et al. (2002a) proposed that attending to the map affects the ability to attend to travel in particular such that it requires a reduction in running speed. Reducing running speed so that the map can be read increases the time taken to cover a given distance in the orienteering course, which negatively affects performance time; but reading the map decreases the chance of making a navigational error, which could negatively affect performance time more than reducing running speed. The following quote from an expert orienteer provides evidence of the attentional tradeoff between the map and travel. What determines how long you look at it [the map] is how long you need to get the information from it, but also how long you can look at it without running into something or falling over or breaking a leg…. So you’ll be concentrating on looking at the map and you’ll just glance up to make sure you’re not going to trip into anything you run over. (Eccles et al., 2002a, p. 76)

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Expert orienteers’ cognitive advantage Eccles et al. (2006) undertook a behavioural-level study of the trade-off between map reading and running. Inexperienced and experienced orienteers were trained to verbalise “map”, “ground” and “travel” whenever they attended to the map, environment and travel, respectively, during orienteering practice. Then, the participants wore a video camera and used the verbal labels as they completed various orienteering courses. Each recorded film was coded, using the audible labels, at each point in time in terms of what the participant was attending to and whether the participant was moving or stationary. Experienced (vs. inexperienced) orienteers were on average twice as fast around the courses. Also, inexperienced orienteers were stationary (vs. moving) for most (62%) of the time they attended to the map, whereas experienced orienteers were moving for most (73%) of the time they attended to the map. When the data from both groups were collapsed, percentage of time spent moving (vs. stationary) while map reading accounted for 45% of the variability in performance times. Thus, for inexperienced (vs. experienced) orienteers, map reading requires a greater withdrawal of attention from travel and thus more stopping (vs. running). This finding might be explained by individual differences in innate attentional abilities. An orienteer who innately possesses an enhanced attentional ability might be better at map reading while running. This hypothesis has not been tested and, therefore, the validity of this explanation is unknown. However, studies by Eccles and his colleagues (Eccles, 2006; Eccles et al., 2002a, 2002b; Macquet et al., 2012) have provided evidence that expert orienteers employ cognitive and behavioural strategies that effectively circumvent natural limitations on attention to enhance their ability to read the map while running. Furthermore, these strategies are taught by orienteering coaches and practised by orienteers. These findings are promising because while natural limitations on attention might constrain a novice orienteer’s ability to read the map while running, this ability might be developed by attempts to learn these strategies. These strategies are described in the sections that follow. Cognitive strategies used to circumvent limitations on attention Three cognitive strategies used to circumvent limitations on attention were reported by Eccles et al. (2002a), described earlier, and by Macquet et al. (2012). The study by Macquet et al. (2012) involved a highly elite orienteer who wore a head-mounted video camera during international races, and later viewed the race films and commented on his decisions made during the races. These verbalisations

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were then examined to identify the cognitive strategies underpinning race performance. These strategies are described here.

Strategic scheduling of attention to the map This strategy involves using “quiet periods” of races, which are temporary periods when demands on attention are naturally low, to attend to the map. For example, running on even surfaces (e.g. roads) is “quiet” because there is little need to attend to travel. Quiet periods allow orienteers to attend to the map to identify and plan actions for upcoming sections of the course that will impose higher attentional demands, such as sections requiring careful navigation. This planning reduces the need to attend to the map when these demanding sections of the course are reached, which affords faster running through these sections. In effect, map information processing is distributed over time to avoid peaks of attentional demand, which is evident in this quote by an expert orienteer. Let’s have an example of where you got a very easy leg of 500 metres …and there’s a road junction [at the end of it]…. As long as you’re not going to miss that junction … you might as well use that time … effectively…. We’d use the time to plan the rest of the course so we’d … be looking at the map, … at another part of the course [to be covered] later on. (Eccles et al., 2002a, p. 78)

Navigational simplification To reduce the need to attend to the map, orienteers simplify their navigation by using only the most useful terrain features for navigation and ignoring less useful terrain features. This strategy is evidenced in this quote by an expert orienteer. The desire to do well in a race creates an imperative that says I need to get everything right, … I need to do this as quickly as possible…. Therefore, I need to know exactly the information that’s going to take me around the course but no more, … the most efficient use of the information available. (Eccles et al., 2002a, p. 78) A useful terrain feature is highly distinguishable in the environment, which means it can be seen easily from a distance. Running directly to a seen terrain feature reduces the need to use the map to navigate to that feature, which reduces the need to attend to the map. The desire to identify distinguishable features from map with which to navigate is evidenced in this quote by an expert orienteer.

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D. W. Eccles & G. Arsal When I look at the map, there’s much information. Some elements stand out more than others. If we want to go fast, we’ve to rely on big recognisable features on the map that also stand up from the horizon. These features here are the rocks. I build a mental image of the terrain according to these rocks and then I’ve to build a leg in relation to these rocks. (Macquet et al., 2012, p. 95)

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Using an attack point The most navigationally challenging part of any leg (the distance from one control to the next) is the final approach to the control, which is typically the last 100 metres of the leg. This is because the control flag is small and easily missed as it is searched for. Consequently, more accurate navigation is required during the approach to the control versus earlier in the leg, which involves more map reading, leading to a reduction in running speed. For this reason, an “attack point” strategy, which is a special class of simplification strategy, is used to simplify navigation during the approach to the control. An attack point is a terrain feature located close to the control flag that is more distinguishable than the control flag (e.g. a large boulder), which makes navigating to the attack point easier than navigating to the control. If the attack point is located near the control, the amount of accurate navigation required to locate the control is reduced; this reduces the need to attend to the map, which affords faster running. Before the final approach to any control, the orienteer will attempt to identify from the map an attack point located near the control flag. This strategy is evidenced in this quote by an expert orienteer. An attack point could be…something as obvious as a track junction.…It’s a feature that…couldn’t possibly be anything else in the vicinity, …nothing else within 500 metres that could possibly be that.…It’s the sort of feature you can absolutely peg it to because you know you cannot miss it… and ideally it’s close enough to the control that you…minimise the time when you’re going slowly and carefully into the control. (Eccles et al., 2002a, pp. 81–82) Eccles et al. (2002b) provided behavioural-level evidence of this strategy, using laboratory methods to trace the attention of novice and expert orienteers as they planned routes from maps. In one method, orienteers were provided with 5 s exposures of an orienteering map showing one leg and asked to use the exposures to plan a route from the start of the leg to the control. Between each exposure, the map was removed to reveal a diagram of

the perimeter of the orienteering map and the start of the leg and the control at the end. The orienteers used stickers to indicate on the diagram where they had attended within the orienteering map. In another method, a map was provided containing a leg covered with removable stickers except for two areas showing the start of a leg and the control. The orienteers removed the stickers, one by one, to obtain information needed to plan a route from the start to the control. Follow-up interviews were conducted to obtain more information about the planning strategies employed. The results from the behavioural methods indicated that novices focused their attention first around the start of the leg, which is an intuitive heuristic. By contrast, experts focused their attention first around the control. Experts’ interview data indicated that this focus around the control reflected a desire to identify an attack point. Behavioural strategies used to circumvent limitations on attention As described, orienteers carry a map and compass during races. Eccles (2006) interviewed expert orienteers and orienteering coaches how this equipment is used during races and revealed that expert orienteers strategically arrange the equipment to reduce the attentional cost of obtaining navigational information from it. Two of these behavioural strategies are described here. Folding the map Orienteers attend to the map to locate the “pertinent area” (Eccles, 2006), which is the map area corresponding to the area of the terrain around their current location and around a few of the upcoming course legs. Searching for the relatively small pertinent area within the larger map area requires much attention, which reduces running speed, as described. Expert orienteers use two strategies to reduce this visual search. The first involves folding the map so that map areas not needed for navigation at a given point within the course (which are areas distant from the pertinent area) are folded under the exposed map and out of view. The map areas remaining in view include the pertinent area and its immediate surroundings. Also, the folds are made so that the pertinent area is positioned more centrally within the exposed map than before the folding. These actions mean that, when the orienteer looks down at the map, there is less map area to search to locate the pertinent area, and the pertinent area is more consistently located within the (smaller) map area. Thus, the pertinent area becomes easier to locate. As the orienteer progresses through the

Expert orienteers’ cognitive advantage

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If you spent ten seconds looking for where you were on the map you might even have to stop running, stand still … hold the map still, whereas if you know that when you pick the map up and [you can] look at the end of your thumb [to locate the pertinent area] … you don’t waste any time. (Eccles, 2006, p. 1109) Discussion

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Figure 1. Typical arrangement of an expert orienteer’s map during orienteering.

course, the map is refolded frequently according to the change in the pertinent area caused by this progression. The folding strategy is illustrated in Figure 1 and evidenced in these quotes from an orienteering coach and orienteer, respectively. [Folding] assists with the focusing process …when they fold it [i.e., the map] down to what leg they should be doing now, they’re narrowing their focus onto their current task. There’s a lot of [map] folding and refolding … That, in itself, makes focusing on exactly what you’re doing much easier than [when you’re using] a large map. (Eccles, 2006, pp. 1108– 1109)

Thumbing the map Expert orienteers also engage in thumbing to reduce the attentional cost of locating the pertinent area. The thumb of the hand holding the map is placed flat on the map and the thumb’s end is positioned so that it points to the pertinent area. The reduced map area and the centring of the pertinent area achieved via the folding strategy help positioning the thumb in this way. As Figure 1 shows, the fingers of the same hand are placed underneath the map so that the map can be gripped. Thumbing reduces the visual search for the pertinent area because, when the orienteer looks down at the map, he or she is no longer required to locate a small map symbol from the mass of detail that comprises the map; instead, his or her thumb, an object easily distinguishable from the map detail, can be used to guide attention towards the pertinent area. The following quote by an orienteering coach evidences the thumbing strategy.

The objective of this article was to demonstrate that expert orienteers have developed a cognitive advantage. Specifically, they have acquired knowledge of strategies allowing them to circumvent natural limitations on information processing. With that goal, we described a series of studies of orienteering in which expert orienteers made use of cognitive and behavioural strategies that afforded the circumvention of natural limitations on attention. The studies reviewed provided evidence that a key task constraint in orienteering is the requirement to attend to three key sources of information: the map, environment and travel. Attending to these three sources of information simultaneously is problematic. This problem arises is likely due to structural constraints and, to a lesser extent, processing constraints on attention. Owing to the structure of the eyes and their location in the skull, when the orienteer attends to the map, the orienteer finds it difficult to attend to some terrain features (e.g. distant hills) in the surrounding environment (i.e. to “environment”) or to the ground immediately beneath their feet (i.e. to “travel”). Also, if a resource model of attention is adopted (Kahneman, 1973), the orienteer’s finite attentional resources may mean that he or she does not have sufficient resources to attend appropriately to travel or the environment while attending to the map. However, also revealed in the review was that expert orienteers have adapted to this task constraint by developing cognitive and behavioural strategies that circumvent natural limitations on attention. The cognitive strategies included avoiding peaks of attentional demand by distributing map information processing over time. Specifically, orienteers leveraged opportunities to read the map during relatively “quiet” periods of performance to reduce the need to read the map during upcoming periods of performance that they anticipated would be relatively “busy”. This type of skilled sampling strategy has been observed in experts in other domains (e.g. aircraft piloting), requiring attention to multiple, dynamic sources of information; specifically, these experts reduce processing burdens by dividing and switching attention between these sources and investing different levels of attention across these sources (Abernethy, 2001; Gopher, 1993).

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Simplification strategies, including the use of attack points, were another type of cognitive strategy identified in the review. These strategies involved selecting from the map only the most useful terrain features for navigation and ignoring other less useful terrain features. They helped circumvent limitations on attention by reducing the need to attend to the map. Individuals who perform in environments characterised by rich and dynamic sources of information learn with practice to separate task-relevant from task-redundant information, and to limit their processing to relevant aspects of the task (Annett & Kay, 1956; Haider & Frensch, 1996). The behavioural strategies used to achieve a circumvention of limitations on attention included folding and thumbing the map. Folding the map reduced the map area requiring visual search. This finding is similar to “display-size effect” seen in the experimental studies of visual search (Treisman, 1991), which describes a positive relationship between the number of items in a visual display and the search time required to locate a given display item. Omitting extraneous items from the (map) display by folding the map decreases the number of items that must be searched. The thumbing strategy also reduced the visual search required to locate the pertinent area and did so by acting as “featural singleton” (Yantis, 1993). The thumb is relatively easily located in the (map) display because it is perceptually distinguishable in terms of size, morphology and colour from the surrounding (map) display items, which are relatively homogenous on these perceptual dimensions. The behavioural (i.e. folding and thumbing) strategies used by the expert orienteers are akin to those used by experts in other real-world domains (e.g. cooking) to reduce processing burdens (Kirsh, 1996). In Kirsh’s (1996, p. 415) terms, the orienteers’ behavioural strategies enhanced the “cognitive congeniality” of the environment by reducing the “number and cost of mental operations needed for task success”. In the studies reviewed, the participants’ reports indicated that the strategies used by expert orienteers to circumvent limitations on attention had received extensive practice during the orienteers’ development. It is likely that such practice leads orienteers to benefit from the adaptations to long-term memory, described by Ericsson and Kintsch (1995), that support performance mediation processes including planning, monitoring and evaluation, during performance (Ward, Suss, Eccles, Williams, & Harris, 2011). Furthermore, it is likely that these enhanced performance mediation processes govern when and where orienteers apply these strategies so that they are maximally effective in circumventing attentional limitations. The research described here has implications for orienteering coaching and training. Following the examples of operator training from industrial psychology (Gopher, 1993), orienteering coaches should examine the usefulness of training novice orienteers on the basis

of models of expert orienteers’ attention allocation strategies. Such training might involve an instructional set that specifies trying to read the map and move at the same time, even if initially the learner walks rather than runs. To this end, the learner should attempt to recognise “quiet” periods of orienteering, when attentional demands are low (e.g. running over flat ground), and leverage these by attending to the map to plan ahead. One limitation to the series of studies reviewed here is that it did not feature any attempts to train neophytes in the use of the identified strategies. Future research should involve such training studies. The research described here potentially has implications for other sports requiring performers to attend to multiple and dynamically varying sources of information; for example, the American football quarterback must track player movements downfield to make an effective pass decision. Sports scientists should explore the efficacy of training neophytes in other sports in the use of attention-control strategies based on expert models of attention allocation (Fadde, 2009; Harris, Eccles, Ward, & Whyte, 2012; Ward, Suss, & Basevitch, 2009). While there are few attention training studies within sports, there are encouraging signs that athletes can be taught attention-control strategies (Williams et al., 2011). By reviewing a series of studies of the sport of orienteering, we showed how expert orienteers use acquired cognitive and behavioural strategies to circumvent natural limitations on attention. Thus, while expertise in sport often appears so extraordinary that it is difficult to imagine how “normal” individuals may achieve it, we have begun to “unweave the rainbow” of expertise, finding it to be less about “magic” and more about mechanisms (Ericsson et al., 1993). We believe that our findings can be used by athletes, coaches and parents as an example of how sporting expertise may not be the possession of only a privileged few but in fact may be available to all aspiring athletes (cf. Dweck, 2012).

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How do they make it look so easy? The expert orienteer's cognitive advantage.

Expertise in sport can appear so extraordinary that it is difficult to imagine how "normal" individuals may achieve it. However, in this review, we sh...
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