A Study Of Priming Effect On Anticipation Of Ball Location In Table Tennis Players

The study investigates the cognitive processing about anticipation of ball location in table tennis players, comparing with college students in different amount of information about priming stimuli and analyzing the differences of priming effect, as well as the effect on placement anticipation. The study used expert-novice paradigm, priming paradigm and temporal occlusion paradigm to explore the differences between 20 table tennis players and 21 college students in anticipation of ball location. First of all, the results on selected reaction time showed no significant difference(p > 0.05), thus insuring that there is no effect of selected reaction time on subsequent experiment. Secondly, formal experiment materials included pr iming and target stimuli. Priming stimuli referred to a fragment of table tennis serve video and participants could get clues about the location of the ball from the video. In accordance with the length of video, the experiment conditions were divided into t1, t0, and t2 three cases. Target stimuli were divided into nine regions similar to the picture of Ping-Pong table and there is a difference between one region and the other eight regions in colors. Participants were required to make key response to target stimuli and recorded the reaction time and correct response rate.Results were as follows:(1) There is significant difference among three kinds of amount of priming stimuli in table tennis players. The priming stimuli speeded up the players’ reaction to target stimuli when they were consistent. When the amount of priming information is t0 or t2, there is significant difference between consistencies in players(p < 0.01).(2) The reaction time of college students in consistent condition was faster than inconsistent condition. There is priming effect only in t2 amount of information. There is significant difference of priming effects between consistencies(p < 0.01).(3) There is no significant difference among the amount of priming information in table tennis players(p > 0.05). While the amount of priming effect is significant in college students(p < 0.05).Conclusions were as follows:(1) In the absence of explicit anticipation condition, table tennis players will automatically use the previous information to anticipate the location of ball. The serve videos significantly affect the reaction to target stimuli in players indicating the priming effect and verifying the unconscious processing of anticipation.(2) There is no significant effect of amount of information on the reaction to target stimuli in players. We deem that the amount of information do not affect the processing of anticipation.