CONNECTING OUR EYES, BRAIN, AND BODY CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE
Incredibly Fast Decision-Making In Sports — How Do Athletes Do It?
Part One: The case for unconscious vision and decision making in sports
Making decisions is a fundamental part of human life. We make decisions every day, from what to wear, what to eat, and what job to take. Decisions in sports though are different, they require split-second execution and incredible accuracy. But how does the human brain make decisions? And why do we make the decisions we do under the stresses of sports competition?
Decisions in Sports
Decision-making speed in sports is an essential component of sports performance. It is crucial to understand how humans make decisions and how quickly they do so in order to understand the role of vision in athletic performance.
In sports, participants must use sensory information, mostly from the eyes, to make a decision and then coordinate a motor action for success. On many occasions, there is only a brief period in which a decision can be made and executed. Given the relatively slow speed of human conscious thought, most of these decisions are likely to occur at an unconscious level.
Although unconscious processes are faster than conscious processes, it is possible that even unconscious processes are not alone fast enough for elite sporting success.
In this, and the next postings, we will explore conscious vs unconscious decision-making as well as recent research that suggests that perhaps our visual systems and brains employ techniques that rely on quantum physics for even faster execution.
Unconscious Decisions
Some scientists believe that unconscious decision-making theory is supported by findings in neuropsychology. For example, studies have shown that people can be influenced by stimuli they are not consciously aware of.
Participants were shown a picture of a snake, in one study, before being asked to choose between two options. The majority of participants chose the option that was furthest from the snake, even though they were not consciously aware of the snake’s presence. This suggests that the participants’ brains were automatically choosing the option that was safest for them, without them having any conscious knowledge of why they were doing so.
In another example, studies have shown that people can control their thoughts and behaviors using cognitive techniques like self-talk and affirmations. In one study, participants were asked to think about something positive before completing a challenging task. The results showed that those who had positive thoughts about themselves performed better on the task than those who did not. This suggests that people are able to control their thoughts and behaviors using cognitive techniques, even when they are not consciously aware of what they are doing.
Clearly, decisions can be made consciously or unconsciously. it is likely that both types play a role in everyday decision-making processes. The unconscious decision-making process may be responsible for automatic or instinctive responses, while the conscious decision-making process may be responsible for more deliberate or calculated responses. Given the timing required in sports, unconscious decision-making likely is the predominant process.
Besides decisions, vision also has a significant unconscious component. In another recent study, researchers showed black and white lines to subjects either pointed vertically or tilted left or right. They showed this image for a very brief time (17 milliseconds). About a second later they showed another set of lines and asked if the second target matched the first target. Incredibly, although the subjects reported that they did not see the first target and thus could not say which way the lines they were shown were oriented, they were able to provide the correct answer at a greater frequency than would be expected by simple random guessing (chance). Thus, although the subjects did not consciously appreciate the initial target, unconsciously they must have registered what they saw and were able to correctly answer more often than by simply guessing randomly.
Athletes simply do not have the luxury of time. In baseball, a batter has about 150 ms before they need to make a go or no-go decision on a 90 mph fastball. In Volleyball, a player has about 210 ms to make a decision regarding the return of a 75 mph serve. You can only imagine how little time an athlete has to return a serve by Rafael Nadal or a shot on goal by an NHL opponent. All of these decisions require a process much faster, visually and cognitively than what would be expected with a conscious decision.
Considering these studies, it appears that both the visual system and the decision-making system operate at a rapid, unconscious level required for optimal sports performance.
In the next part of this series, we’ll review the main principles of quantum mechanics that have direct implications for sports and visually-based decision-making. In part 3 of this review, you’ll see how our brain is able to apply the principles of quantum mechanics as well as work faster than a supercomputer, to make the incredibly fast and accurate decisions needed to win in sports.
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