This thesis investigated the development and effectiveness of a perceptual training programmes for coaches and judges in gymnastics. Study one examined the variability of visual search for coaches and judges when viewing handspring vaults. The study found that there were no significant differences between the mean number of fixations, fixation duration and number of areas fixated across two time-points four weeks apart. In addtion, the natural range of variation of the number of fixations, fixation duration and number of area fixated was found to be 9/7%, 5.7% and 14.2% (expressed as coefficient of variation). Study two examined differences between expert and novice gymnastics coaches' and judges' visual search. Analysis of gaze behaviour showed that experts make significantly more fixations of significantly longer duration to significantly fewer areas than novies. There was no significant difference between the outcome juddgements made by the expert and novice coaches and judges. These findings suggest that visual search may be a contributing factor to expert performance in judgement formation. Study three explored the visual search pattern and knowledge used by expert coaches and judges when making decisions. Data were gathered through the used of eye-tracking and semi-structered interviews. Analyses established that experts tend to fixate on the torso and shoulders of gymnasts throughout the vault, and that there are three to four specific areas which are explored during each phase of a vault. Study four examined the effectiveness of a perceptual training programme for a perceptual traning and control group. Fixation number, fixation duration, number of areas fixated and outcome judgement were recorded at baseline, immediently after the programme and four weeks after it had been withdrawn. 2 (control vs. perceputal training) x 3 (intervention phase) ANOVA's with repeated measures showed that the perceptual training group produced significantly less error at the retention stage for number of fixations (F (2,6) = 12.57, p = 0.01, effect size n2 = .81), at the post-test for fixation duration (F (2,6) = 7.49, p = 0.02, effect size n2 = .71). However post-hoc analyses could not detect the difference for number of areas fixated. In study five, four participants that took part in the experiental condition watched a perceptual training DVD twice a week for six weeks. The case study data showed that the expert and novices who watched the perceptual training DVD made changes to their visual search variables and judgements and therefore became more analogous to the experts from study three to baseline to the post-test. However, only the novices retained the beneficial effects of the intervention. To conclude, this programme of research examinaed the development and effectiveness of a perceptual training programee for coaches' and judges' in gymnastics. This thesis suggests that a perceptual training programme based on the visual search and declarative knowledge of expert coaches and judges is effective at altering visual search and enhancing decision making for noveice coaches and judges. This research programme therefore promotes the use of perceptual training programmes for novice coaches and judges in sport.

Understanding the process of language acquisition is a challenge that many researchers spanning different disciplines (e.g. linguistics, psychology, neuroscience) have grappled with for centuries. One which has in recent years attracted a lot of attention has been in the area of non-native phoneme acquisition. Speech sounds that contain multiple phonetic cues are often difficult for foreign-language learners, especially if certain cues are weighted differently in the foreign and native languages. Greek adult and child speakers of English were studied to determine which cues (duration or spectral) they were using to make discrimination and identification judgments for an English vowel contrast pair. To this end, two forms of identification and discrimination tasks were used: natural (unedited) stimuli and another ‘modified’ vowel duration stimuli which were edited so that there were no duration differences between the vowels. Results show the Greek speakers were particularly impaired when they were unable to use the duration cue as compared to the native English speakers. Similar results were also obtained in control experiments where there was no orthographic representation or where the stimuli were cross-spliced to modify the phonetic neighborhood. Further experiments used high-variability training sessions to enhance vowel perception. Following training, performance improved for both Greek adult and child groups as revealed by post training tests. However the improvements were most pronounced for the child Greek speaker group. A further study examined the effect of different orthographic cues that might affect rhyme and homophony judgment. The results of that study showed that Greek speakers were in general more affected by orthography and regularity (particularly of the vowel) in making these judgments. This would suggest that Greek speakers were more sensitive to irrelevant orthographic cues, mirroring the results in the auditory modality where they focused on irrelevant acoustic cues. The results are discussed in terms of current theories of language acquisition, with particular reference to acquisition of non-native phonemes.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a series of perceptual training and drawing lessons on the drawing behaviour of children of eight years of age, in year three classes in some South Australian middle income schools. A literature search revealed that the drawing behaviour of children is responsive to perceptual training and drawing classes, and furthermore that an improvement in drawing ability has resulted from such programmes. Children of eight years of age were selected for two reasons. Their drawing development has generally become schematic, which means that a certain degree of stereotyping is used in their drawing. And in addition the perceptual development of eight year olds is considered by many perceptual theorists to be sufficiently advanced for a series of training lessons. Also as a result of perceptual development children of eight years of age are able to participate in a drawing test which involves the drawing of objects or models based on the observation of such objects or models. A pretest-posttest with control group design was used in this study. The experimental and control groups were selected from a sufficiently large sample of schools. The groups selected were randomly assigned to be experimental or control groups in the study. A Salome modified drawing test was administered to each experimental and control group in the study. This drawing test which consisted in the subjects being required to draw three objects, was administered as a pretest and a posttest to all groups by the researcher. The experimental groups received a treatment which consisted of six weekly sessions involving perceptual training and drawing exercises. The control group continued with their normal art lessons with their class teacher. The test drawings were scored by three judges on a Salome modified rating scale. A scoring procedure was devised so that the judges were unaware whether the drawings to be scored were pretest, or posttest, control group or experimental group. The following statistical tests were conducted on the drawing scores using an SPSS computer programme: a t-test for age a t-test to determine whether there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental and the control groups. an analysis of variance to determine whether there was a significant difference between the gain scores of the experimental and control groups. - and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients for rater inter-reliability. All statistical tests demonstrated that the experimental groups gained significantly higher posttest drawing scores. All statistical tests produced results as the 0.05 level of significance. The implications for curriculum design, and the practice of teaching drawing in primary schools, are that interventionist drawing programmes of the kind used in this study do aid drawing development. Drawing is a basic skill in art, thus a perceptual training and drawing programme which aids drawing development will also improve other modes of artistic expression.

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