2.  Background to athletic training areas
 Importance of decisions - strategizing?
Reaction time?
 Research- Learning process
- Sensorimotor system
- motor response
 Practical applications/ Further research-
can we train?

3.  Can train physical skills
 50% psychological 50% physiological
(Lohr 1982, Silva 1984)
reference 2 , 11
 Can train Mental skills such as mental
toughness (Golberg 1998, Williams 1998)
reference 2
 Can we train decision making???

4.  Decision making: This is defined as the
process that transforms continuous
sensory data into simple categories from
internal and external areas and thus
produces the information for the
response reference 7

5.  Strategizing – exert less physical energy
 Reaction time- improve the speed of a
response

6. 1) a stage of accumulation of sensory
evidence,
2) 2) integration sensory signals including
reward expectations and cognitive
information
3) 3) weighing of options/ comparisons
4) 4) finally the selection of behavioural
responses .
reference 5,7

7.  Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)
 Basal Ganglia (in particular the caudate
nucleus of the striatum)
 It is confident due to their location in the
brain that they both work in conjunction
with one another reference 1, 3,5.

8.  “Achieve a cognitive state that specifies
a particular alternative even though the
overt action that signifies the selection of
that alternative need not have been
produced.”

9.  1) a stage of accumulation of sensory
evidence
 2) integration sensory signals including
reward expectations and cognitive
information
 3) weighing of options/ comparisons
 4) finally the selection of behavioural
responses .
reference 8

10.  Retina - Cerebral Cortex- Primary visual
area (V1) – Secondary visual area-
Tertiary visual area-partial and temporal
lobes- PFC- FEF- Dorsolateral prefrontal
area
 Two neural streams- ventral (to the
inferior temporal) and the dorsal (partial
temporal) .
reference 9

11.  somatosenory cortex.
 3 pathway response, the Primary, Pre
and Supplementary motor pathways
.
reference 4

12.  Accuracy reference 5
 Distracting stimuli
 Variety (Nuemman + Morgenstern 1992)
reference 6
 (Bazerman 1990 and Hackman in 1991)
reference 9
 Focus reference 9
 Reward reference 7
 Mistakes Staw 1981 reference 10
 Group decisions Delbecq 1925 reference 11

13.  literature was rather undecided if reaction time can
be improved.
 From the research I have performed it seems to me
that if we can train….
I. athletes concentration levels to be high
II. Athletes to look for certain cues we could possibly
reduce reaction time.
This would result in….
I. Our pre saccade movements would be more direct
to stimuli we need, reducing the pile up of
information on the system for processing, thus
reducing the time for a decision and the time for the
corresponding response. FURTHER RESEARCH IN
TRAINING PRE SACCADE MOVEMENTS

14.  Thanks for listening 
 Reference 1)
 Callaway, E. M. (2002). Cell type specificity of local cortical connections. Journal of neurocytology,
31(3), 231-237.

 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A%3A1024165824469
 Reference 2)
 Cherry, H. L. (2005). Psychometric analysis of an inventory assessing mental toughness. Masters Theses,
588.
 http://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1735&context=utk_gradthes&sei-
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 Reference 3)
 Dean, James W., and Mark P. Sharfman. "Does decision process matter? A study of strategic decision-
making effectiveness." Academy of management Journal 39.2 (1996): 368-392.
 http://localhopf.cns.nyu.edu/~tony/vns/readings/callaway-2002.pdf

 Reference 4)
 Gold, J. I., & Shadlen, M. N. (2007). The neural basis of decision making. Annu. Rev. Neurosci., 30,
 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17600525


15.  Reference 5)
 Houk, J. C., Bastianen, C., Fansler, D., Fishbach, A., Fraser, D., Reber, P. J., ... & Simo, L. S. (2007). Action
selection and refinement in subcortical loops through basal ganglia and cerebellum. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 362(1485), 1573-1583.
 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2440782/
 Reference 6)
 Jones, G. (2002). What is this thing called mental toughness? An investigation of elite sport performers.
Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 14(3), 205-218.
 http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/uasp/2002/00000014/00000003/art00005
 Reference 7)
 Opris, I., & Bruce, C. J. (2005). Neural circuitry of judgment and decision mechanisms. Brain Research
Reviews, 48(3), 509-526.

 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165017304001687

 Reference 8)
 Pasupathy, A., & Miller, E. K. (2005). Different time courses of learning-related activity in the prefrontal
cortex and striatum. Nature, 433(7028), 873-876.
 http://depts.washington.edu/shapelab/papers/Nature_PFC_Cd.pdf
 Reference 9)
 Roitman, J. D., & Shadlen, M. N. (2002). Response of neurons in the lateral intraparietal area during a
combined visual discrimination reaction time task. The Journal of neuroscience, 22(21), 9475-9489.
 http://www.jneurosci.org/content/22/21/9475.full
 Reference 10)
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 Schneider, D. W., & Anderson, J. R. (2011). A memory-based model of Hick’s law. Cognitive
psychology, 62(3), 193-222.

 http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/publications/pubinfo.php?id=910
 Reference 11)
 Van De Ven, A. H., & Delbecq, A. L. (1972). The nominal group as a research instrument for exploratory
health studies. American Journal of Public Health, 62(3), 337-342.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1530096/