Scheduled for Sociocultural and Psychology Posters, Friday, April 4, 2003, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall A


Expert-Novice Differences in Imagery Content and Knowledge Representation During the Game Play of Volleyball

Jennifer J. Gorecki1, Eva A. Vadocz2 and Karen E. French2, (1)Illinois State University, Normal, IL, (2)University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

The purpose of this study was to investigate the imagery perspective and content of knowledge representations of expert and novice volleyball players during game play. Ten members of a large southeastern university's varsity volleyball team and ten physical education majors enrolled in a volleyball class at the same university participated in game play and between point interviews to elicit knowledge representation and decision-making. As well, the setters participated in concurrent talk-alouds during game play. Participants were identified as using imagery during their responses (situation interview conducted after game play). The responses of athetes reporting imagery use were then analyzed using a qualitative data analysis program (NUD*IST). Participants also completed the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (Hall, Mack, Pavio & Hausenblas, 1998). Results indicated that 9 experts and 9 novices reported using imagery. Four of the experts reported using both internal and external imagery while 2 used internal and 3 external exclusively. The majority of novices (n=7) reported using the external perspective. The themes that emerged from both novice and experts reflected the cognitive and motivational functions of imagery. Experts were differentiated from novices by depth of tactical content, opponent tendencies, expectations of success, fewer negative images, and fewer images of skills. Independent t-tests on SIQ subscales indicated they also reported using more Motivation Specific imagery (MS-Goals) and Motivation General-Arousal imagery (MG-Arousal). Imagery appeared to be accessed and used as part of players knowledge representation during game play and during between point (immediate retrospective) interviews. More research is needed to examine the relationship between knowledge representation, decision-making and use of imagery to mediate skill performance and skill acquisition.

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