ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the most common instructional approaches used to train perceptual-cognitive skills in sport. It reviews the empirical evidence related to instructional approaches in perceptual-cognitive skills training. The chapter examines the methodological challenges of applying specific instructional approaches, and the mediating factors that could influence the impact of instructions, namely situation complexity and learner characteristics. It focuses on knowledge gained from past research to illustrate how practitioners can optimise the delivery of instructions to help develop perceptual-cognitive skills and what future issues warrant research investigation. Sports-specific perceptual-cognitive skills training have been suggested as an appropriate method to help lesser-skilled athletes develop anticipation more akin to their expert colleagues. While guided-discovery approaches could arguably be considered direct or indirect in nature, there has been a smaller amount of work focusing on enhancing anticipation and decision making using indirect approaches. The effect an instructional approach has on perceptual-cognitive skills can depend on whether the situation is of low or high complexity.
