ABSTRACT
Over the past few decades, the study of perceptual-cognitive expertise has expanded rapidly in a range of disciplines (Ericsson et al., 2006). Perceptual and cognitive skills have been identified as crucial to performance in many domains, such as driving (e.g. McKenna and Horswill, 1999), aviation (e.g., Russo et al., 2005), medicine (e.g., Patel et al., 1990), and sport (e.g., Williams et al., 1999). In such situations, the ability to anticipate future events based on information arising early in the visual display is crucial. For example, skilled drivers are able to anticipate potentially hazardous traffic situations more effectively than novice drivers, resulting in a reduction in accident liability (McKenna and Horswill, 1999). Similarly, in many sports, whether externally paced such as tennis and cricket (Penrose and Roach, 1995; Williams et al., 2002) or self paced such as orienteering (Eccles et al., 2002a, 2002b), the ability to anticipate upcoming events based on relevant prior information can provide a performance advantage. Experts identify relevant information early and make use of domain-specific knowledge to facilitate performance.
