Perceived and actual performance in female volleyball players: Vertical and horizontal jump
Keywords:
Affordance, jump, motion perception, motor skill, volleyballAbstract
Perception and action were so closely related that in many situations, affordance perception directly affected the control of movement. The aim of this study was to examine whether frequent practice and engagement, such as that which occurs for vertical but not horizontal jumps in volleyball, leads to more accurate perception of affordances. A total of 30 female volunteers, including 14 professional female volleyball players (age:18.71±5.41 years) and 16 female control participants (age:20.06±1.06 years), participated in two tasks. For the vertical jump-and-reach task, participants judged the maximum height they could attain if they were to run, jump up, and reach with their fingertips. For the horizontal jump task, participants judged the maximum distance they could leap using a standing broad jump. In both cases, participants first estimated their perceived ability and then performed the tasks. As expected given their greater height, jumping ability of volleyball players exceeded that of control participants for both vertical jump-and-reach (p<0.001) and horizontal (p<0.001) jumps. Volleyball players also exhibited smaller constant error (p<0.001) and absolute error (p<0.001) in their perceived maximum jumping ability for the vertical jump-and-reach task, but there were no differences between groups in either constant error (p=0.131) or absolute error (p=0.334) for the horizontal jump task. Thus, experience playing volleyball, a sport requiring frequent vertical but not horizontal jumping, was associated with judgement accuracy on the vertical but not horizontal jump task. The results suggest that volleyball training may be associated with improvement in opportunity perception, which leads also to improved athletic ability.
Downloads
References
Bayraktar, Y. (2022). The perception of affordances for sport specific technique and physical performance in taekwondo athletes Doctoral Thesis, Selcuk University. Konya, Türkiye). https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/tezSorguSonucYeni.jsp
Chang, C. H., Wade, M. G., Stoffregen, T. A., & Ho, H. Y. (2008). Length perception by dynamic touch: The effects of age and experience. J Gerontol B-Psychol, 63(3), 165–170. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/63.3.P165.
Cole, W. G., Chan, L. Y. C., Vereijken, B., & Adolph, K. E. (2013). Perceiving affordances for different motor skills. Exp Brain Res, 225(3), 309–319. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-012-3328-9.
Crowther, R. H., Renshaw, I., Spratford, W. A., Sayers, M. G., & Gorman, A. D. (2023). Previous experiences can influence individual cricket spin bowlers’ perceptions of affordances in the performance landscape. Psychological Research, 87(6), 1729–1742.
Davids, K., & Araujo, D. (2010). The concept of ‘organismic asymmetry’ in sport science. J Sci Med Sport, 13(6), 633–640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2010.05.002.
De Arruda, D. G., Barp, F., Felisberto, G., Tkak, C., Wagman, J. B., & Stoffregen, T. A. (2023). Perception of affordances in female volleyball players: Serving short versus serving to the sideline. Res Q Exercise Sport, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.2023.2279989.
Fajen, B. R., Riley, M. A., & Turvey, M. T. (2008). Information, affordances, and the control of action in sport. Int J Sport Psychol, 40(1), 79–107.
Flach, J. J., Schotborgh, A. K., Withagen, R., & Smith, J. (2021). Perception of maximum distance jumpable remains accurate after an intense physical exercise and during recovery. Atten Percept Psycho, 83, 3285–3293. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-021-02315-z.
Gibson, J. J. (1977). The theory of affordances. In Perceiving, acting, and knowing: Toward an ecological psychology (pp. 67–82).
Gibson, J. J. (2014). The ecological approach to visual perception. Taylor & Francis. [Original work published in 1979].
Grechkin, T. Y., Chihak, B. J., Cremer, J. F., Kearney, J. K., & Plumert, J. M. (2013). Perceiving and acting on complex affordances: How children and adults bicycle across two lanes of opposing traffic. J Exp Psychol Human, 39(1), 23–36. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029716.
Higuchi, T., Murai, G., Kijima, A., Seya, Y., Wagman, J. B., & Imanaka, K. (2011). Athletic experience influences shoulder rotations when running through apertures. Hum Movement Sci, 30(3), 534–549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2010.08.003.
Johnson, D. C., & Wade, M. G. (2007). Judgement of action capabilities in children at risk for developmental coordination disorder. Disabil Rehabil, 29(1), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638280600947708.
Mann, D. T., Williams, A. M., Ward, P., & Janelle, C. M. (2007). Perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport: A meta-analysis. J Sport Exerc Psychol, 29(4), 457–478. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.29.4.457.
Mark, L. S., Nemeth, K., Gardner, D., Dainoff, M. J., Paasche, J., Duffy, M., & Grandt, K. (1997). Postural dynamics and the preferred critical boundary for visually guided reaching. J Exp Psychol Human, 23(5), 1365–1379. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.23.5.1365.
Norman, D. (1988). The psychology of everyday things. New York: Basic Books.
Oudejans, R. R. D., Michaels, C. F., Bakker, F. C., & Dolne, M. A. (1996). The relevance of action in perceiving affordances: Perception of catchableness of fly balls. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 22(4), 879–891. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.22.4.879.
Passos, P., Araujo, D., Davids, K., Gouveia, L., Serpa, S., Milho, J., & Fonseca, S. (2009). Interpersonal pattern dynamics and adaptive behavior in multiagent neurobiological systems: Conceptual model and data. J Motor Behav, 41(5), 445–459.
Passos, P., Milho, J., Fonseca, S., Borges, J., Araujo, D., & Davids, K. (2011). Interpersonal distance regulates functional grouping tendencies of agents in team sports. J Motor Behav, 43(2), 155–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222895.2011.552078.
Peker, A. T., Erkmen, N., Kocaoglu, Y., Bayraktar, Y., Arguz, A., Wagman, J. B., & Stoffregen, T. A. (2021). Perception of affordances for vertical and horizontal jumping in children: Gymnasts versus non-athletes. Res Q Exercise Sport, 92(4), 770–778. https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.2020.1775768.
Pepping, G. J., & Li, F. X. (1997). Perceiving action boundaries in the volleyball block. In J. B. Watson, R. Rayner (eds.), Studies in Perception and Action IV (pp.137–140). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Stoffregen, T. A., Gorday, K. M., Sheng, Y-Y., & Flynn, S. B. (1999). Perceiving affordances for another person’s actions. J Exp Psychol Human, 25(1), 120–136. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.25.1.120.
Stoffregen, T. A. (2018). Affordances as properties of the animal-environment system. In how shall affordances be refined? (pp. 115–134). Routledge.
Walter, H., Wagman, J. B., Stergiou, N., Erkmen, N., & Stoffregen, T. A. (2017). Dynamic perception of dynamic affordances: Walking on a ship at sea. Exp Brain Res, 235(2), 517–524. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4810-6.
Warren Jr, W. H., & Whang, S. (1987). Visual guidance of walking through apertures: Body-scaled information for affordances. J Exp Psychol Human, 13(3), 371. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.13.3.371.
Witt, J. K. (2011). Action’s effect on perception. Curr Dir Psychol Sci, 20(3), 201–206. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411408779.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Yusuf Açıkalın, Nurtekin Erkmen, Yasemin Bayraktar, Abdullah Arguz, David C Schwebel
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a 