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A Decision/Action Model for Soccer – Pt 6

Paying and capturing attention

“Observation is the task that detects events within an individual’s, or groups, environment. It is the method by which people identify change, or lack of change, in the world around them. While it is not the sole basis for Action, it is a primary source of new information in the behavioral process.”Frans P.B. Osinga

“The often-used phrase “pay attention” is apt: you dispose of a limited budget of attention that you can allocate to activities, and if you try to go beyond your budget, you will fail. It is the mark of effortful activities that they interfere with each other… You can do several things at once, but only if are easy and undemanding.”Daniel Kahneman

Viewing attention as both an internally driven process and an externally driven force

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What is attention?How does it work as a cognitive process?

“Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in a clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration of consciousness are of its essence. It applies withdrawal from some things in order to deal with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatter brained state which the French call distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.” [27]

“Bottom-up processing proceeds in a “single direction from sensory input, through perceptual analysis, towards motor output, without involving feedback information flowing backwards from ‘higher’ centers to ‘lower’ centers.” [27]

Bottom-up processing is expressed by System 1; the Dorsal Stream between Sensory Memory and Sensory-Motor Memory in the LIDA Model and the Implicit Guidance and Control path between Orientation and Action in the OODA Loop. Bottom-up processing uses fast-and-frugal heuristics and operates on lower and quicker time-scales. It is a ‘management process’ using the smallest amount of computational time and power.

“During top-down processing, “the flow of information is from ‘higher’ to ‘lower’ centers, conveying knowledge derived from previous experience rather than sensory stimulation.” [27]

Top-down processing is expressed by System 2; the Ventral Stream that leads to consciousness and the Global Workspace in the LIDA Model and the Decision (Hypothesis) path that leads from Orientation to Action in the OODA Loop. Top-down applies slower rational decision-making and higher time-scales. It is a ‘leadership process’ requiring a higher cost in computational time and power, therefore a greater amount of attention must be paid.

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The fuel for the internal process for attention comes through channels and frequencies

Internally generated attention is fed primarily through three interrelated sensory systems (channels); sight, hearing and feeling (not emotions).

Each channel carriers numerous bits of data and information from a variety of sources (frequencies), in different forms and in different time-scales. At any time a player can; seean almost infinite number of targets for their attention; hear many different sources for sound; feel a variety of different sensations. Each of the three major channels has different frequencies competing for immediate attention.

The competition for attention is decided though a player/s distributed genetic heritage, cultural traditions and previous experience, new experiences and feedback from the environment. Attention is distributed because players should not be alone, collaboration, watching each others back, is the preferred option.

A decision needs to be made, (hold or change) when a key frequency* reaches a certain threshold. [15,29]

*With three competing channels, each with multiple frequencies, each frequency with different thresholds, attention must be given to which ‘key frequencies’ threshold emerges first. Selection of which ‘one is the key’ is a central problem in decision-making. The question, “do I wait for what’s planned to materialize or do I go with the first option available and move on from that plan?” is at the heart of the heuristics vs. rational approach argument. Each frequency carries it’s own cost/benefit in the larger picture. [15,19,25,29]

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The visual channel and it’s constraints

The visual system is the primary source of “fuel” for the process of attention. It has the highest computational cost and uses the ‘greatest amount of attentions bandwidth.’ For a closer look at how the visual system in soccer works see the following videos: [27,28]

“A decision-making model for sport; Boyd’s OODA loop applied to soccer;” Part 2 – Observations in soccer, the data, information, knowledge, wisdom model:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UywPrsWawL4&list=UUI6vwbM9FKPl8JCJBWsOYbA&index=22&feature=plcp 2:28

Part 3 – Attention and gaze control in soccer, a look at six types of attention: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt7zwJsDSwg&list=UUI6vwbM9FKPl8JCJBWsOYbA&index=21&feature=plcp 3:33

Part 4 – Visual targets for attention, preattentive filters, concrete and abstract targets for attention: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4BU6lpl3DY&list=UUI6vwbM9FKPl8JCJBWsOYbA&index=20&feature=plcp 4:12

Part 5 – Visual workspaces, where the are targets hiding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC877i_qqDY&list=UUI6vwbM9FKPl8JCJBWsOYbA&index=19&feature=plcp 4:05

Part 6 – Visual limitations, sensation and perception, hardware and software work together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ussu4WZ0Hx0&list=UUI6vwbM9FKPl8JCJBWsOYbA&index=18&feature=plcp 4:14

Part 7 – Complex emergent systems, “parts spontaneously adjusting and adapting to each other:”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5a6KW3f4YU&list=UUI6vwbM9FKPl8JCJBWsOYbA&index=17&feature=plcp 3:21

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The visual frequencies and their constraintsWhat one is looking at and for

The visual targets for attention are the same thing as the visual frequencies. What one sees comes in two categories.

Concrete: Objects; entities that are free to move about the field, primarily people and the ball. Locations; things that do not move and serve as reference points, i.e. the goals, the fields

markings, near & far post.

The movement of objects against a background of concrete locations creates the need for abstract concepts. Dynamic, transient and complex “ideas” that one attempts to match to an evolving world.

Abstract: Locations; nonphysical, transient spaces, (they have names) which change as objects move

within the field and game flow, i.e. blindside, goal side, between, around, over, an offside position, overlap, passing angle.

Systems; the actual or potential paths of interactions between concrete objects and locations, i.e. a schematic. Systems can be tightly or weakly coupled, may include members of both teams, networks and hubs.

Probabilities; the perceived value of the observed systems. Given a player/s limited time, information and computational power what is the potential that ‘this’ target can be exploited or poses a threat? (See heuristics). At the probability level, systems take on value and meaning in the search, stop, decision rules.

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Auditory and tactile constraintsOther targets that can gain attention

While vision is the dominant sensory channel, hearing and touch can override it and share attention for short periods. This requires distributed attention, a switch task. [7,16]

Sound is primarily generated by objects for short periods in a serial fashion, a call, the sound of the ball being struck. Auditory frequencies have two main elements; volume, is it loud enough to be heard and familiarity, do we understand it. For the later, one may need to attend to an entire message. When the message length exceeds the psychological present System 2 must focus on it, i.e. a coaches lecture. [14,17] That drains attention from other tasks and points to the need for heuristics to save time and energy. Each frequency is a ‘sound generation’ by a different object, i.e. all of the transmitters within ones auditory field can potentially be heard.

Touch is the sensory channel that warns us that something is very close and may require immediate attention and action. Touch, or feeling, may develop slowly like the sense of fatigue or quickly like a pulled muscle. Even the anticipation of physical contact can dominate attention and alter behavior, see danger in Clausewitzian Friction in Part 1.

Individuals are not alone in anchoring, framing, directing and holding attention. In the distributed situational awareness model attention is a group concern. The group shares, for good or ill, a collective genetic heritage, cultural base, previous experience and multiple physical perspectives. That sharing of information must contend with, and take advantage of different timescales within the group. [1,2] That requires a high level of fingerspitzengefühl.

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The relationship of frequencies and thresholds

“Attention has been described as a threshold-based process that determines whether or not we become aware of a stimulus… Some researchers have attributed additional roles to attention: as a filter on what is perceived, and as a stabilizing force on sensory mechanisms.” [10]

Frequencies are numerous, come from different channels and present an evolving picture of “state changes” in the environments. They require different cognitive functions to integrate the incoming flow into harmonious action between team members. That action will be coordinated through explicit and implicit visual, verbal and tactile communication. The goal; to match the groups evolving cognitive picture to the evolving external realities. Furthermore, the group usually includes an opponent/s who actively resist and attempt to disrupt or reorient the groups targets of attention.

Thresholds serve two functions for frequency control; they serve notice about changes and significant events. [17] In the first case, signals cannot be sustained indefinitely, they decay without fresh input and their relevance changes. Significant events include dramatic changes and surprise events. They are either a matter of expectations being dramatically missed or a ‘total surprise’ like a blind side run. Survival is dependent on choosing which frequency carries the most important signal and monitoring its threshold. Is it what you see, hear or feel? Does one attend to gradual change or some unforeseen development that just pops up?

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Common events that can reach a threshold and get attention [13]

Novelty – something new, exciting, unexpected.

Relevancy – something that pertains to the current search. “That’s it!”

Informativeness – something that serves as a clue and helps guide the next decision/action.

Problems – either yours or theirs. Something lets you know that a change, wanted or not, maybe about to happen. Often the ‘gut feeling.’

Inconsistency – erodes trust between players. Sensemaking begins to crumble and a problem might be next.

Violated expectations – the moral code between players is broken. Sure attention getter.

Whatever can’t be dealt with by unconscious, automatic processors – this is the point when System 2 must get involved, attention must be paid.

Both teams experience and can create these events. Attention to the opponent and what external events effects their cognitive picture is as important as what is happening within ones own team. Creating these situations is a path to dominating the opponents while maintaining cohesion.

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When do you reach a threshold?

There are no universal standards for thresholds. Individuals differ and even an individual can experience different thresholds in similar situations. Experience and training can sharpen the skill of detection while fatigue, aging and the opponents can dull or mislead it. That said, a key to improving speed of play is to increase threshold sensitivity without hitting paralysis by analysis.

An example of a visual threshold sensitivity. Carefully look at the black square below. Is there any difference in the color value? If so what is the difference and where is it?*

Questions in soccer are more complicated then this. In soccer, onedoesn’t get too many opportunities to calmly study an object. Objectsdon’t sit still, frozen in time and some have the capability to intentionally mislead. Yet one employs the same visual hardwareand software in this example as well as under match conditions.The answer to these questions shows that there are genetic, cultural, temporal andexperiential limits to what one can visually perceive.

*The square isn’t uniform. It’s divided in half from the top right corner to the bottom left. The upper left triangle has a CMYK value of 83, 72, 70, 90; the lower right 84, 73, 71, 90. The visual system is not sensitive enough to appreciate a difference, it is below the level of discrimination. Examples can be made for sensitivity thresholds in the other two channels.

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Using targets to get at attentionSignal-to-noise ratio

“Signal-detection theory provides a general framework to describe and study decisions that are made in uncertain or ambiguous situations. It is most widely applied in psychophysics – the domain of study that investigates the relation between physical stimulus and its subjective or psychological effect – but the theory has implications about how any type of decision under uncertainty is made.” [29]

“The starting point for signal detection theory is that nearly all decision making takes place in the presence of some uncertainty. Signal detection theory provides a precise language and graphic notation for analyzing decision making in the presence of uncertainty… There are two kinds of noise factors that limit the subject’s performance: internal noise and external noise.” [15]

“Signal-to-noise ratio is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired signal [the key target for attention] to the level of background noise [everything else]…SNR is sometimes used informally to refer to the ratio of useful information to false or irrelevant data in a conversation or exchange.” WikipediA

“Improving SNR in practice. All real measurements are disturbed by noise. This can include external [and internal] events that affect the measured phenomenon [what one observes and experiences] — weather, opponents, coaches, fans, being preoccupied etc., depending on what is measured [the game situation/schwerpunkt] and of the sensitivity of the player/s. It is often possible to reduce [or increase] the noise by controlling the environment.” Modified WikipediA

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Using targets to get at attentionSignal-to-noise ratio

In SNR there are two types of signals open for consideration, noise or signal, and two possible options, attend or ignore. This means there are four possible outcomes as the diagram below shows. [29]

“Two of these possibilities, hits and correct rejections, are correct; the other two, false alarms and misses are errors.” [29]

The player/s that have a higher ratio of hits and correct rejections compared to the opponents will have a decided advantage. They will see more clearly through the Fog of War and spend less time considering dead ends and red herrings. [15,29]

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Four paths for dominating attentionWhen they pay in attention, overcharge them for a bad idea

Overwhelm them, task saturation. Create so many options for the opponent that they have a “helmet fire” and noise overwhelms the environments. The problem with this path is that it takes a lot of mass and energy in motion. That makes it difficult over long periods. Since the environment/s may become unpredictable ones own team cohesion can begin to unravel. (Predictability is one of the foundations of trust.)

Sell certainty, then deceive them. “Convince the enemy we are going to do something other than what we are really going to do in order to induce him to act in a manner prejudicial to his own interests. The intent is to give the enemy a clear picture of the situation, but the wrong picture.” [22]

Confuse them, create ambiguity. “Act in such a way that the enemy does not know what to expect. Because he does not know what to expect, he must prepare for numerous possibilities and cannot prepare adequately for any one.” [22]

Sneak up on them, surprise creates a significant event. “Deny the enemy any knowledge of impending action. The enemy is not deceived or confused as to our intentions but is completely ignorant of them.” [22]

When these four paths are used harmoniously a team will have “The ability to operate at a faster tempo or rhythm than an adversary [which] enables one to fold adversary back inside himself so that he can neither appreciate nor keep-up with what’s going on. He will become disoriented or confused;” [4]

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Destruction and creation [3]

How target thresholds rise and fade, the necessity to adapt

“To comprehend and cope with our environment we develop mental patterns or concepts of meaning… In a real world of limited resources and skills, individuals and groups form, dissolve and reform their cooperative or competitive postures in a continuous struggle to remove or overcome physical and social environmental obstacles… Against such a background, actions and decisions become critically important. Actions must be taken over and over again and in many different ways. Decisions must be rendered to monitor and determine the precise nature of the actions needed that will be compatible with the goal.” [3]

In soccer, survival requires a collaborative effort to endure constant stress and continual evolution. Isolated individuals don’t do well over time. Harmonious inter-subjectivity is the goal.

“Naturally, as we go through life we develop concepts of meaning (with included constituents) to represent observed reality.” [3]

“When this orderly (and pleasant) state is reached the concept becomes a coherent pattern of ideas and interactions that can be used to describe some aspect of observed reality. As a consequence, there is little or no further appeal to alternative ideas and interactions in an effort to either expand, complete, or modify the concept . Instead, the effort turned inward towards fine tuning the ideas and interactions in order to improve generality and produce a more precise match of the conceptual pattern with reality.” [3]

In a match paying attention never rests. As soon as it has found a key threshold, it begins to look deeper into it, running comparison/contrast tests against experience and the evolving reality which eventually result in a mismatch.

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Destruction and creation [3]

How target thresholds rise and fade, the necessity to adapt

“On the other hand, we suspect that refined observations now underway will eventually exhibit either more or a different kind of precision and subtlety than the previous observations and thought patterns. Clearly, any anticipated difference, or differences, suggests we should expect a mismatch between the new observations and the anticipated concept description of these observations.” [3]

One begins to suspect that there is a better fit or answer. Either a different frequency is moving into the spot light, i.e. approaching its threshold, the one that’s being attended to is fading, or it’s really not at its threshold yet.

“To avoid such a discomforting position implies that we should anticipate a mismatch between phenomena observation and concept description of that observation. Such a notion is not new and is indicated by the discoveries of Kurt Gödel and Werner Heisenberg.” [3]

The only thing permanent is change. Change occurs internally, concept formation, and externally, the world. Finding a match is finding equilibrium, good luck with that.

“According to Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics one cannot determine the character or nature of a system within itself. Moreover, attempts to do so lead to confusion and disorder.” [3,4]

Interactions are the key to survival and growth, isolation the path to decay and death.

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SummaryPatterns of Conflict

In soccer attention is something that’s always in demand and open to influence. Like a currency, it has value that is influenced by many different factors. One looks to get the highest return on his or her investment while compelling the opponent to spend more then they should on theirs. The battle to protect your attention while demanding the most from the opponents is summed up in John Boyd’s Patterns of Conflict. The transfer from air-to-air combat and tactical thinking to soccer is simple, clear and I won’t alter the original examples in the following.

Action: Exploit operations and weapons that:

Generate a rapidly changing environment (quick/clear observations, orientation and decisions, fast-tempo, fast transient maneuvers, quick kill)

Inhibit an adversary’s capacity to adapt to such an environment (cloud or distort hisobservations, orientation, and decisions and impede his actions)

Idea: Simultaneously compress own time and stretch-out adversary time to generate a favorable

mismatch in time/ability to shape and adapt to change

Goal: Collapse adversary’s system into confusion and disorder causing him to over and under react to

activity that appears simultaneously menacing as well as ambiguous,chaotic, or misleading.

Slide 7.Defense and the National Interest; www.d-n-i.net January 2007; http://www.ausairpower.net/JRB/patterns_ppt.pdf

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SummaryPatterns of Conflict

Recipe for generating confusion and disorder Observations

Quick/clear scanning sensors Suppressed/distorted signatures

Activity Fire

Quick shoot fire control systems and high speed weapons

Movement High speed (supercruise) Rapid energy gain and rapid energy loss coupled with high turn rates and low turn radii High pitch rates/high roll rates/ high yaw rates coupled with ease of control

Slide 8Defense and the National Interest; www.d-n-i.net January 2007; http://www.ausairpower.net/JRB/patterns_ppt.pdf

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Selected references

1. ARTMAN, H. GARBIS, C. 1998, Situation Awareness as Distributed Cognition (Proceedings of ECCE’98, Limerick).2. ARTMAN, H. 2000, Team Situation Assessment and Information Distribution (Ergonomics, Vol. 43, No. 8, 1111-

1128).3. BOYD, J. 1976, Destruction and Creation

(http://pogoarchives.org/m/dni/john_boyd_compendium/destruction_and_creation.pdf) 4. BOYD, J. 2006, The Strategic Game of ? and ? (http://www.dnipogo.org/boyd/strategic_game.pdf) 5. BURBECK, S. 2007, Complexity and the Evolution of Computing: Biological Principles for Managing Evolving

Systems (Muticellular Computing, V2, 2, 1-41). 6. CHEN, E. KATILA, R. 2008, Rival Interpretations of Balancing Exploration and Exploitation: Simultaneous or

Sequential? (Handbook of technology and innovation management, John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 197-214). 7. CRENSHAW, D. 2008, The Myth of Multitasking, How “Doing it all” Gets Nothing Done (San Francisco: Wiley

Imprint). 8. DAVIDS, K., BUTTON, C. & BENNETT, S. 2008, Dynamics of Skill Acquisition, A Constraints-Led Approach

(Champaign, Il: Human Kinetics). 9. DITTERICH, J. MAZUREK, M. SHADLEN, M. 2003, Microstimulation of Visual Cortex Affects the Speed of Perceptual

Decisions (Nature Neuroscience, Vol. 6, No. 8, 891-898).10. FAGHIGI, U. McCALL, R. FRANKLIN, S. 2012, A Computational Model of Attentional Learning in a Cognitive Agent

(Elsevier, Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures, Vol. 2, Oct. 2012, 25-36). 11. FRAISSE, P. 1984, Perception and Estimation of Time (Annual Reviews Psychology, 1-36). 12. FRANKLIN, S. 1997, Artificial Minds (London, England: Bradford Book). 13. FRANKLIN, S. February 2005, How Minds Work, Global Workspace Theory

(http://ccrg.cs.memphis.edu/tutorial/PDFs/Global%20Workspace%20Theory.pdf). 14. HAYES, L. 1992, The Psychological Present (The Behavior Analyst, 1992, 15, 139-145). 15. HEEGER, D. 1997, Signal Detection theory (www.cns.nyu.edu/~david/handouts/sdt-advanced.pdf)16. JOHANSSON, F. 2004, The Medici Effect, Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts & Cultures

(Boston, Ma: Harvard Business School Press). 17. KAHNEMAN, D. 2011, Thinking Fast and Slow (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

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Selected references

18. KLEIN, S. Unknown date, The duality of psycho-physics (School of Optometry, University of California. Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. cornea.berkeley.edu/pubs/60.pdf).

19. KOCH, C. 2004, Selective Visual Attention and Computational Models, (http://www.klab.caltech.edu/cns186/PS/attentionkoch.pdf).

20. LUAN, S. 2011, A Signal-Detection Analysis of Fast and Frugal Trees (Psychological Review, Vol. 118, No. 2 316-338).

21. MARCH, J. 1991, Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning (Organizational Science, Vol. 2 No. 1 Feb. 1991, 71-87).

22. MARINE CORPS, U.S. 1997, MCDP 1, Warfighting (http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/service_pubs/mcdp1.pdf).23. OSINGA, F. 2007, Science, Strategy and War, The Strategic Theory of John Boyd (New York: Routledge). 24. RAO, V. 2011, Tempo, Timing, Tactics and Strategy in Narrative-Driven Decision-Making (Ribbonfarm Inc).25. RICHARDS, C. 2004, Certain to Win, The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business (Xlibris Corporation).26. SHAPIRO, L. 1994, What is Psychophysics? (PSA 1994, Vol. 2, 47-57). 27. VICKERS, J. 2007, Perception, Cognition, and Decision Training, The Quiet Eye in Action (Champaign, Il: Human

Kinetics).28. WILLIAMS, A.M., DAVIDS, K. WILLIAMS, J.G., 1999, Visual Perception & Action in Sport (London, England:

Taylor & Francis). 29. WICKENS, T. October, 2011, Elementary Signal Detection Theory, (Oxford University Press.)

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Thank you“I’ll live or die by my own ideas.” Johan Cruyff

Presentation created December 2012 by Larry Paul, Peoria Arizona.All references are available as stated.All content is the responsibility of the author.For questions or to inquire how to arrange a consultation or workshop on thistopic or the others in the series you can contact me at larry4v4@hotmail.com, subject line; decision/action model.For more information visit the bettersoccermorefun channel on YouTube.