The integration of contextual priors and kinematic information during anticipation in skilled boxers : The role of video analysis

Abstract: The current study examined how repetitive exposure of an opponent’s stroke preferences on video affected the integration of contextual priors and kinematic information during anticipation in skilled boxers. We performed an experimental ingroup-design with a temporal-occlusion video-based anticipation task with repeated measures where 19 male skilled boxers (M = 22.95 age, SD = 4.26) classified as A boxers in Sweden participated in the study. The test represented three different stroke combinations divided into four tests and two exposure videos. Each test included 22 occluded clips divided into two blocks and each block contained six high-probability strokes, three moderate-probability strokes and two low- probability strokes. The participants were informed to answer which stroke they anticipated and how sure they were of their answer after each clip. Retrospective verbal reports were answered regarding what information the participants used to anticipate the strokes in the preceding test. The purpose of the exposure videos was to manipulate the participants’ to-be- anticipated action in favor of the opponent’s stroke preferences both when the opponent acted and did not act accordingly. The result indicated that participants learned kinematic information about the opponent by observing the opponent on video rather than learning about the opponent’s stroke preferences. Future research is needed to fully understand how contextual priors integrate with kinematic information in boxing.