The basic information processing model (input, decision making, output, feedback) and how it applies to skilful performance.

What this dot point is asking

AQA wants you to describe the basic information processing model (input, decision making, output and feedback), explain selective attention, and apply the model to a sporting skill.

The basic information processing model

The stages form a loop: the feedback from one action becomes part of the input for the next, so the performer keeps adjusting.

It is worth understanding what happens at each stage in a little more depth, because the higher-mark questions ask you to apply the model rather than just list it. At the input stage the performer gathers cues through the senses, mainly sight and hearing in most sports but also touch and the sense of body position (proprioception). At the decision-making stage the brain sifts those cues and selects a response, drawing on stored experience, so a player who has faced a situation many times before decides faster. At the output stage the chosen decision is sent as nerve impulses to the muscles, which carry out the movement. At the feedback stage the performer judges the result, both from inside (how it felt) and from outside (the score or a coach's comment), and this updates what they do next. A weak link at any stage, such as missing a key cue at input or choosing the wrong response, harms the whole performance.

Selective attention

Selective attention speeds up decision making and improves performance, because the brain is not overloaded by useless information. Experienced performers are better at it.

Memory plays a central part in the decision-making stage, and AQA expects you to mention it. Incoming information is briefly held in the short-term memory (sometimes called the short-term sensory store), where selective attention decides what is worth keeping. The relevant cues are then compared with movements and experiences stored in the long-term memory, where well-practised skills live permanently. This is why an experienced performer reacts faster: they have a large bank of stored responses, so they recognise a situation and select the right action almost automatically, while a beginner must work each decision out slowly. Practice moves a skill from being a slow, conscious decision into a stored, near-automatic response, which is also why experts have faster reaction times in their sport even if their raw reaction time is no quicker. The whole model is a continuous loop, because the feedback from each action updates the memory and sharpens the next decision.

Worked example