A Behavioual and Brain Science Perspective on Decision Making in Sport

The elite athlete routinely performs impressive cognitive feats. Not only do they undertake complex decision-making seemingly intuitively, they do so under conditions of intense pressure, limited time and restricted resources. Decision-making refers to the cognitive processes that underpin the selection of one course of action from several alternatives (Reason, 1990); it is essential for high-quality performance in sport (Farrow & Raab, 2008; Jordet & Hartman, 2008; Paserman, 2007). Decision-making is the focus of the following thesis. In particular, undertaken in the Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at UCL, this thesis has the translational goal of understanding and increasing insight into the decision-making of elite athletes. It focuses on how psychological knowledge can be of use in the ‘real world’, as well as aiming to learn about behaviour outside of a laboratory; this is undertaken by focusing on two areas. Initially the utility of transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) as a tool for modifying decision-making is explored to assess the potential for use in decision-making training in sport. The thesis then moves on to examining the influence that physical and mental performance pressures have on decision-making across different developmental stages of elite athlete expertise.