Head-fake perception in basketball: the relative contributions of expertise, visual or motor training, and test repetition

The present study was conducted to disentangle the relative impact of visual and motor experience on the processing of the head fake in basketball. In a pre-test-intervention-post-test study, we investigated if the head-fake effect can be reduced with either a one-week visual-training intervention (visual-training group: N = 17, 10 females, 7 males, mean age = 21.2 years) or with a one-week motor-training intervention (motor-training group: N = 17, 10 females, 7 males, mean age = 20.9 years). Additionally, a waiting-control group (N = 17, 8 females, 9 males, mean age = 23.1 years) without any intervention and a group of experienced basketball players (N = 21, 9 females, 12 males, mean age = 23.9) was tested in the pre-post-test design (i.e., without intervention). The size of the head-fake effect was measured in a laboratory setting with a reaction time experiment, in which participants had to classify the pass direction of a faking or non-faking basketball player, who was shown in a video on a screen wall. The study revealed that the head-fake effect decreased after the training interventions. Surprisingly, the waiting-control group showed similar improvements. Thus, the reduced head-fake effect appears to be based on test-repetition effects. Moreover, after a single test session the head-fake effect approached a level that experts displayed from the outset. Even a small amount of practice (i.e., test-repetition) is sufficient to reduce, though not to abolish, the head-fake effect. We discuss this finding with regard to the common-coding approach and working memory capacity.