Professor Bruce Abernethy

BHMS(Ed)(Hons)(Qld), PhD(Otago), FASMF

• Professor (on leave)

Contact details

Chair & Director
Institute of Human Performance
Room 108C, Flora Ho Sports Centre
University of Hong Kong
111-113 Pokfulam Road
Hong Kong SAS
E-mail: bruceab@hkucc.hku.hk

Background

Bruce Abernethy is a first class Honours graduate and university medallist from the University of Queensland and a PhD graduate from the University of Otago . He first joined the staff of the School in 1983 as a lecturer and became a Professor of the University in 1991. Professor Abernethy also served as head of the School of Human Movement Studies from 1991 – 2003.

He is an International Fellow of the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education (since 1993) and a Fellow of the Australian Sports Medicine Federation (since 1997). An inaugural board member of the Australian Association for Exercise and Sport Science, Prof. Abernethy was a Visiting Professor in the School of Physical Education , Nanyang Technological University , Singapore in 1998. He is currently an editorial board member of Current Psychology of Cognition and an editorial advisory board member of the Journal of Sports Sciences. He has previously held positions as editor of the Australian Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport and as an editorial board member of Human Movement Science and the International Journal of Sport Psychology.

Professor Abernethy is currently on leave at the University of Hong Kong where he is Director of the Institute of Human Performance.

Research Interests

Prof. Abernethy's broad research interest is in the control and learning of skilled movement, with a particular focus upon discovering and understanding the processes and mechanisms underpinning the perception and production of whole body movement patterns. A persistent theme within this research has been the study of movement expertise, using expert-novice comparisons as a means of advancing understanding about the limiting factors to skilled performance, changes in information pick-up and utilisation with skill learning, and practice and contextual factors essential for the optimisation of skilled action. Other related research activities and interests include studying the visual control of movement, examining attentional aspects of movement control (especially implicit learning of pattern recognition and anticipatory skills), and investigating triggers for movement pattern re-organisation (especially those essential for the control of human gait).

A range of investigative techniques are employed in this research work. Kinematic, kinetic and electromyographic analyses of movement are undertaken and complemented by measures of perceptual behaviour derived from such techniques as controlled visual occlusion, eye movement recording, and computer-generated visual simulations.

Prof. Abernethy's research work has been consistently funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC). Current research support comes from the Australian Sports Commission, the Australian Football League, and Cricket Australia.

Selected Publications

Müller, S., & Abernethy, B., & Farrow, D. (in press). How do world-class cricket batsmen anticipate a bowler's intention? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Müller, S., & Abernethy, B. (in press). Batting with occluded vision: An in-situ examination of the information pick-up and interceptive skills of high and low skilled cricket batsmen. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.

Müller, S., & Abernethy, B. (2006). Skill learning from an expertise perspective: Issues and implications for practice and coaching in cricket. In J. Dosil (Ed.), The Sport Psychologist's Handbook: A Guide for Sport-Specific Performance Enhancement (pp.245-261). London : John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-470-86356-0.

Farrow, D., & Abernethy, B. (in press). Expert perception in sport: Some key questions and issues. In Strauß, B., Tietjens, M., & Hagemann, N. (Eds.), Psychologie der sportlichen Höchstleistung [Psychology of Sporting Excellence ]. Germany: Hogrefe Publishers.

Abernethy, B., Maxwell, J.P., Jackson , R.C., & Masters, R.S.W.  Cognition and skill in sport.  To appear in F. Durso, R. Nickerson, S. Dumais, S. Lewandowsky, & T. Perfect (Eds.), Handbook of Applied Cognition (2nd ed.).  Wiley.

Abernethy, B., Maxwell, J.P., Masters, R.S.W., van der Kamp, J., & Jackson, R.C.   Attentional processes in skill learning and expert performance.  To appear in G. Tenenbaum & R.C. Eklund (Eds.), Handbook of Sport Psychology (3rd ed.).  Wiley.

Côté, J., Baker, J., & Abernethy, B.   Practice and play in the development of sport expertise.  To appear in G. Tenenbaum & R.C. Eklund (Eds.), Handbook of Sport Psychology (3rd ed.).  Wiley.

Côté, J., MacDonald, D., Baker, J., & Abernethy, B. (in press) When “where” is more important than “when”: Birthplace and birthdate effects on the achievement of sporting expertise.  Journal of Sports Sciences.  

Jackson, R.C., Warren, S., & Abernethy, B. (in press). Anticipation skill and susceptibility to deceptive movement. Acta Psychologica.

Müller, S. , & Abernethy, B. (in press). Batting with occluded vision: An in-situ examination of the information pick-up and interceptive skills of high and low skilled cricket batsmen. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.

Müller, S., Abernethy, B., & Farrow, D. (in press). How do world-class cricket batsmen anticipate a bowler's intention? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Royal, K.A., Farrow, D., Mujika, I. , Halson, S.L., Pyne, D., & Abernethy, B. (in press). The effects of fatigue on decision making and shooting skill performance in water polo players. Journal of Sports Sciences [published online 10th April, 2006]

Abernethy, B., & Lu, W.W. (in press).   Gait patterns.  To appear in M. Akay (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Biomedical Engineering.  Hoboken, NJ : Wiley.

Abernethy, B., & Côté, J. (in press). Nurturing the Development of a Comprehensive Model of Expertise: A Brief Commentary on Ericsson (2006) and Klissouras, Gelados & Koskolou (2006). International Journal of Sport Psychology

Abernethy, B., Hanrahan, S. J., Kippers, V., Mackinnon, L. T., & Pandy, M. G. (2005). The Biophysical Foundations of Human Movement (2nd Ed.) Champaign IL : Human Kinetics.

Abernethy, B., Baker, J., & Côté, J. (2005). Transfer of pattern recall skills may contribute to the development of sport expertise. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19, 1-14.

Farrow, D., Abernethy, B., & Jackson, R.C.  (2005) Probing expert anticipation with the temporal occlusion paradigm: Experimental investigations of some methodological issues.  Motor Control, 9, 332–351.

Abernethy, B. (2005).  Sport expertise: From theory to practice.  In D. Farrow (Ed.), Proceedings of the Applied Sport Expertise and Learning Workshop [CD].  Canberra : Australian Institute of Sport.

Abernethy, B. (2005) Skill learning and performance III: Expert perception and its training.  In Proceedings of the ISSP 11 th World Congress of Sport Psychology [CD].  Sydney : International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP). [ISBN: 1 877040 36 3].

Abernethy, B., & Farrow, D. (2005). Contextual factors influencing the development of expertise in Australian athletes. In Proceedings of the ISSP 11 th World Congress of Sport Psychology [CD]. Sydney : International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP). [ISBN: 1 877040 36 3].

Abernethy, B., Müller, S., Farrow, D., Wallis, G. , & Barras, N.  (2005). Dealing with natural constraints: The timing of information pick-up by cricket batsmen of different skill levels. In Proceedings of the ISSP 11 th World Congress of Sport Psychology [CD].  Sydney : International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP). [ISBN: 1 877040 36 3].

Berry , J., & Abernethy, B. (2005). Early participation patterns and expert performance in Australian football. In Proceedings of the ISSP 11 th World Congress of Sport Psychology [CD].  Sydney : International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP). [ISBN: 1 877040 36 3].

Müller, S., Abernethy, B., Farrow, D., Wallis, G., & Barras, N.  (2005). Attunement to constraints: From where do skilled cricket batsmen pick up information to anticipate a bowler's intent? In Proceedings of the ISSP 11 th World Congress of Sport Psychology [CD]. Sydney : International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP). [ISBN: 1 877040 36 3].

Royal, K.A., Farrow, D., Mujika, I. , Halson, S.L., Pyne, D., & Abernethy, B. (2005). The effects of fatigue on decision-making and shooting skill performance in water polo players. In Proceedings of the ISSP 11 th World Congress of Sport Psychology [CD].  Sydney : International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP). [ISBN: 1 877040 36 3].

Abernethy, B., Farrow, D., & Berry , J. (2003). Constraints and issues in the development of a general theory of expert perceptual-motor performance: A critique of the deliberate practice framework. In J. Starkes & K.A. Ericsson (Eds.), Expert performance in sports: Advances in research on sport expertise (pp. 349-369). Champaign , IL : Human Kinetics.

Baker, J., Côté, J., & Abernethy, B. (2003). Learning from the experts: Practice activities of expert decision-makers in sport. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 74, 342-347.

Baker, J., Côté, J. & Abernethy, A. B. (2003). Sport-specific practice and the development of expert decision making in team ball sports. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology , 15, pp. 12 - 25.

Farrow, D., & Abernethy, B. (2003). Implicit perceptual learning and the significance of chance comparisons: A response to Jackson . Journal of Sports Sciences, 21, 511-513.

Farrow, D. & Abernethy, A. B. (2003). Do expertise and the degree of perception-action coupling affect natural anticipatory performance? Perception , 32, pp. 1127 - 1139.

Côté, J., Baker, J. & Abernethy, A. B. (2003). from play to practice: A developmental framework for the acquisition of expertise in team sports', in Expert Performance in Sports: Advances in Research on Sport Expertise , eds J. L. Starkes & K. A. Ericsson, Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, pp. 89 - 113.

Abernethy, A. B., Farrow, D. & Berry, J. T. (2003). Constraints and issues in the development of a general theory of expert perceptual-motor performance: A critique of the deliberate practice framework, in Expert Performance in Sports: Advances in Research on Sport Expertise , eds J. L. Starkes & K. A. Ericsson, Human Kinetics, Champaign , IL , pp. 349 - 369.

Abernethy, A. B., Hanna, A. & Plooy, A. M. (2002). The attentional demands of preferred and non-preferred gait patterns. G ait and Posture, 15, 256-265.

Farrow, D. & Abernethy, A. B. (2002). Can anticipatory skills be learned through implicit video-based perceptual training?. Journal of Sports Sciences, 20, 471-485.

Raynor, A., Chow, J. Y., Abernethy, A. B., & Quek, J. J. (2002). Are transitions in human gait determined by mechanical, kinetic or energetic factors? Human Movement Science, 21, 785-805.

Abernethy, A. B. (2001). 'Sports as Expertise, Psychology of', in International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences , N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes, (Eds.), pp. 14935-14938. Oxford , UK : Pergamon.

Abernethy, B., Gill, D., Parks, S. L., & Packer, S. T. (2001). Expertise and the perception of kinematic and situational probability information. Perception, 30, 233-252.

Abernethy, B. & Wood, J. M. (2001). Do generalised visual training programs for sport really work? An experimental investigation. Journal of Sports Sciences, 19, 203-222.

Burgess-Limerick, R. J., Shemmell, J. B. H., Barry, B., Carson, R. G. & Abernethy, A. B. (2001). Spontaneous transitions in the coordination of a whole body task. Human Movement Science , 20, pp. 549 - 562.

Abernethy, B. (2001). Attention. In R. N. Singer, H. A. Hausenblas, & C. Janelle (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Sport Psychology (2nd ed.) (pp. 53-85). New York : John Wiley.

Research Students

Doctor of Philosophy (Principal)

• Adam Gorman
• Juanita Weissensteiner

Doctor of Philosophy (Associate)

• Heidi Moeschinger
• Rachelle Foreman
• Rosanna Stanimirovic