November 7, 2014
Free public event delves inside the athlete’s mind
Philosophy Professor discusses overthinking in sporting performance at Uni in the Brewery on Wed 12 November.
How much thinking does expert, high-speed sport involve? Does overthinking, in some high-stakes occasions, cause elite sportspeople to choke? How might answers to these questions help sportspeople in improving their game? These are enduring questions of interest for sports scientists the world over.
Philosophy Professor Dan Hutto will explore the role and kinds of thinking involved in sporting performance at UOW's final Uni in the Brewery for the year on Wednesday 12 November.
Professor Hutto, who specialises in philosophical psychology or ‘philosophy of the mind’, will share recent developments in cognitive science which suggests that much of our thinking does not take the form of explicitly conscious thoughts and it is not likely to be done all in the head.
“How do elite sportspeople think in action? How seriously should we take the idea that they really think, in part, with their hands or feet? Can we make sense of a dynamic form of thinking that is neither a form of brain-based computing nor a kind of automatic reflex?” Professor Hutto asks.
Professor Hutto is investigating what kind of thinking is needed in sports and how and where is that thinking done.
“Sports researchers and coaches are particularly interested in whether new theories can shed light on the intelligence involved in dynamic, interactive high-speed elite sport,” he said.
Professor Hutto has just returned from a round of overseas conferences – including the 42nd meeting of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport in Brazil, where he delivered the opening keynote address about how embodied cognition can inform sports science.
Professor Hutto holds a primary appointment at UOW as a full-time Professor of Philosophical Psychology and also retains a partial appointment at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. His research is a sustained attempt to understand human nature in philosophically informed and empirically grounded ways.
Uni in the Brewery is a free public lecture series that offers the opportunity to learn about various research projects conducted at UOW and to be involved in lively discussion with the presenters.
Event details: Wednesday 12 November, 5.30-6.30pm, at Five Islands Brewery, Harbour St, Wollongong. Free and open to the public. Registration essential: http://bit.ly/YMNQ1A.
Media contact: Elise Pitt, Media & PR Officer, UOW, +61 2 4221 3079, +61 422 959 953 or epitt@uow.edu.au.