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Updated: Apr 25, 2026
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Orienteering as a Tool for Cognitive Research: An Implementation Guide
Published on: November 29, 2024
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How do they make it look so easy? The expert orienteer's cognitive advantage
1a Sport Programme, School of Applied Social Sciences , Durham University , Durham , UK.
Journal of Sports Sciences
|August 27, 2014
Summary
Expert orienteering athletes use cognitive and behavioral strategies to overcome attention limits, making complex navigation seem easy. These learned skills, not innate talent, are key to superior sport performance for aspiring athletes.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Sports Science
- Human Performance
Background:
- Sport expertise often appears extraordinary and unattainable for average individuals.
- Orienteering, a sport involving map and compass navigation in terrain, presents unique cognitive demands.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the cognitive and behavioral strategies employed by expert orienteers.
- To understand how athletes circumvent natural limitations on attention in sport.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on expertise in orienteering.
- Analysis of cognitive and behavioral strategies used by elite orienteers.
- Examination of how these strategies mitigate attentional demands.
Main Results:
- Expert orienteers develop a cognitive advantage by employing specific strategies.
- Cognitive strategies include temporal distribution of information processing and simplifying navigation.
- Behavioral strategies involve optimizing map display manipulation during races.
Conclusions:
- Sport expertise, specifically in orienteering, is partly achieved by overcoming attentional limitations.
- Acquired cognitive and behavioral strategies are crucial for superior performance.
- High-level athletic achievement may be accessible to dedicated athletes through learned skills.
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