The role of action tendencies in expert anticipation

Abstract

The ability to anticipate the actions of opponents is a significant marker of expertise in many sports. The role of non-kinematic contextual information in anticipation has received increasing attention over the last decade. In this article, we review contemporary research focusing on the specific impact of contextual information related to opponents’ action tendencies on anticipation in sport. This information can be acquired explicitly when probabilistic information about the preferences of the opponent is provided to the athlete before the action commences, or the athlete can pick up this information through exposure to the actions of the opponent. Regardless of how this information is acquired, it has been shown to influence anticipation performance and underlying processing priorities on a wide range of sport tasks. However, factors such as sport-specific expertise, informational reliability, task load, and judgment utility moderate these effects. We discuss methodological issues and gaps in existing knowledge and provide guidance for how to develop more representative research designs in future. Finally, we highlight practical implications that may help coaches and performance analysts in predicting the effectiveness of priming athletes with information about the action tendencies of opponents in various performance situations.