Signal Detection
Category: Sport Skills · 3-page printable PDF · Ages 7-8, 9-10 · Free for ConnectedPE members
A practical skill-acquisition lab investigating how early signal detection shapes performance. Students complete three catching tasks under progressively degraded visual conditions — full view, eyes-closed-then-open, and facing away — and measure what happens to their time and accuracy as the signal arrives later and later.
The design isolates one variable beautifully: the catch itself never changes, only how early the performer detects the ball. Students collect timing and accuracy data across all three conditions, graph individual and group results, and discuss the factors influencing perceptual performance — attention, anticipation, and why experienced players seem to have "more time."
Three pages, standard PE equipment, designed for Years 7–10 and senior-secondary students. Use it inside a skill-acquisition topic alongside the Information Load & Response Time lab — together they cover both halves of the perceive-decide equation that precedes every movement in sport.
What students learn
Students investigate the impact of signal detection on skill performance, collect timing and accuracy data across three task conditions, graph individual and group results, and discuss the factors influencing perceptual performance.
Topics: Skill Acquisition, Reaction Time, Catching, Lab Activity, Senior Secondary
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