Contemplating Controversy: Perception Vs. Performance

    Sports Psychology is an interesting topic in the diverse field of Kinesiology. With sports psychology comes many controversies and arguments. One key controversy being experimented is, does perception effect performance?
 
   Well According to the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) publication " Putting to a bigger hole: Golf performance relates to perceived size", ones perception can have quite the impact on their performance. However, the concept has roots that are deeper than most. According to the NIH, perception is affected by performance, which then affects performance. I like to look at it sort of as a cycle to simplify it.

   The NIH performed an experiment on softball players and discovered that "softball players who are hitting well judge the ball to be bigger than players who have more difficulty hitting"(Witt & Proffitt, 2005). In an essence, people truly believed that their quality performances were due to the ball being bigger and vic versa. Clearly this should not be the case because there was likely a regulated sized ball.

  However the controversy does not completely lie in does perception affect performance, due to that most professionals agree on this, but the question is does these improved perceptions (belief of increased ball size or increased golf hole size) radiate from good players or rather from players who have played good on a certain night.

"However, a question remains as to who really sees the ball as bigger. It could be the people who are just better players, or it could be the people who played better than usual on that night. This question addresses the nature of the effects of performance on perception. These effects might be time dependent, in which case only players who are playing well at the moment will see the ball as bigger, or the effect might be quite general, in which case better players will always see the ball as bigger, independent of how they are playing at any given time."(Witt & Proffitt, 2005)

     Whether it be the better players or the one-shot-wonders who gain this improved perception, one has to admit it is quite amazing how much psychology goes into sport. Sports can seem so simple, yet it is the true complexity that keeps me so intrigued into the field of Kinesiology


Works Cited:

Get Me Out of This Slump! Visual Illusions Improve Sports Performance
Jessica K. Witt, Sally A. Linkenauger and Dennis R. Proffitt Psychological Science 2012 23: 397 originally published online 5 March 2012 DOI: 10.1177/0956797611428810