In praise of conscious awareness: A new framework for the investigation of "continuous improvement" in expert athletes

Toner, John; Moran, Aidan

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00769

In praise of conscious awareness: A new framework for the investigation of "continuous improvement" in expert athletes

Toner, John; Moran, Aidan

Authors

Dr John Toner John.Toner@hull.ac.uk
Lecturer in Sports Coaching and Performance

Aidan Moran

Abstract

A key postulate of traditional theories of motor skill-learning (e.g., Fitts and Posner, 1967; Shiffrin and Schneider, 1977) is that expert performance is largely automatic in nature and tends to deteriorate when the performer “reinvests” in, or attempts to exert conscious control over, proceduralized movements (Masters and Maxwell, 2008). This postulate is challenged, however, by recent empirical evidence (e.g., Nyberg, in press; Geeves et al., 2014) which shows that conscious cognitive activity plays a key role in facilitating further improvement amongst expert sports performers and musicians – people who have already achieved elite status (Toner and Moran, in press). This evidence suggests that expert performers in motor domains (e.g., sport, music) can strategically deploy conscious attention to alternate between different modes of bodily awareness (reflective and pre-reflective) during performance. Extrapolating from this phenomenon, the current paper considers how a novel theoretical approach (adapted from Sutton et al., 2011) could help researchers to elucidate some of the cognitive mechanisms mediating continuous improvement amongst expert performers.

Citation

Toner, J., & Moran, A. (2014). In praise of conscious awareness: A new framework for the investigation of "continuous improvement" in expert athletes. Frontiers in psychology Frontiers Research Foundation, 5(JUL), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00769

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jul 1, 2014
Online Publication Date	Jul 16, 2014
Publication Date	Jun 16, 2014
Deposit Date	Apr 21, 2015
Publicly Available Date	Apr 21, 2015
Journal	Frontiers in psychology
Print ISSN	1664-1078
Publisher	Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	5
Issue	JUL
Article Number	ARTN 769
Pages	1-5
DOI	https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00769
Keywords	Expertise; Continuous improvement; Attention; Embodiment; Bodily awareness
Public URL	https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/372801
Publisher URL	http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00769/abstract
Additional Information	Copy of article first published in: Frontiers in psychology, 2015, v.5
Contract Date	Apr 21, 2015

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Copyright Statement
© 2014 Toner and Moran. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.