The Perception of the Affordances for Interception in Sports-Related Environments

For any perceptual system to perform properly, it must be able to provide the perceiver with the information to do two things properly. It must tell the perceiver when they should attempt to perform an action and, arguably more importantly, when they should not. For example, when a hiker in the arctic encounters a crevasse, they must contemplate whether or not to jump. When

uncertainty exists, failing has dire consequences. These action decisions are hypothesized to be determined by one's perceived affordances, defined as actions that can be performed in a specific environment given the action capabilities of the organism (Gibson, 1979). Consider seeing a coffee mug on a table. If that mug is reachable, then an

affordance for that mug is reaching. If our aforementioned crevasse can be scaled by our hiker, then the crevasse affords jumping. A wealth of research has found that people are competent at determining and updating their affordances for a variety of actions including stair climbing, aperture passing, reaching, grasping, jumping, and catching (Barsingerhorn et al, 2012).

However, these previous studies have been conducted largely on simple actions in sparse, controlled environments (Linkenauger et al., 2009). Additionally, these studies do not consider uncertainty in the dynamics of the environment. As a result, little is known about affordance perception in sports-related environments, where complicated actions are performed in a

complex, constantly changing environment involving competitors. A ubiquitous, yet vital action in most competitive sports is interception: the act of preventing an object from continuing its trajectory, often in competition with an opponent. Success in team sports like football, American football, basketball, field/ice hockey, netball, and rugby heavily relies on the ability to intercept the

target (ball) before an opposing player. However, to our knowledge, little/no research has been conducted investigating how players' perceive affordances for interception in competitive environments (Araujo et al., 2017). Determining how athletes make decisions for interception in different scenarios could allow coaches a useful tool for instruction, leading to improved athletic

performance.