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Skill acquisition and motor learning MRes supervisors

Dr Jamie North headshotDr Jamie North

Jamie is Associate Dean for Research and Enterprise in the Faculty of Sport, Health, and Applied Science. Jamie also holds positions as Associate Editor for the Journal of Sports Sciences and the International Journal of Sport Psychology. Jamie’s research has involved him working with Premier League football teams and international footballers. In addition to this, Jamie’s research projects have featured on BBC Sport, in The Times Newspaper, and on Test Match Special on Radio 5 Live.

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Specialisms

Jamie’s research falls in the broad area of perceptual, cognitive, and motor performance. His research has involved studying these areas in isolation and also how these variables interact with one another. Jamie is interested in studying expert performance and trying to identify the factors or processes that contribute to expertise. Jamie is also interested in how various performance constraints combine to shape the emergence of human behaviours. Finally, Jamie is interested in issues related to more fundamental motor learning and skill acquisition.

MRes project areas

Jamie would be interested to speak with anyone interested in undertaking projects within the broad areas outlined above. In particular, for MRes projects, Jamie would be interested in engaging in cross-disciplinary research. Jamie is primarily interested in human movement science, but has interest in how, for example, neuroscience, or exercise physiology, or biomechanics, can complement his research to better understand motor learning, motor performance, and decision-making.

Contact

Email: jamie.north@stmarys.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8240 4182


Dr Colm Murphy headshotDr Colm Murphy

Colm is a Lecturer in Sports Coaching Science who specialises in Expertise and Skill Acquisition at St Mary’s University.

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Specialisms

Colm has an interest in all areas of skill acquisition and expert performance but his primary specialist area is expert anticipation and decision making. He is also interested in how factors such as feedback provision, instruction, and practice organisation affect skill acquisition.

MRes project areas

Colm would like to invite MRes candidates to complete projects in the below areas:

  • The effect of contextual information on skilled sports performance
  • Examining the effect of stressors on perceptual-cognitive skill
  • Investigating the mode of learning promoted by various feedback methods
  • Equipment scaling as a method of enhancing skill learning in junior athletes

Contact

Email: colm.murphy@stmarys.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8240 4220


Dr André Roca headshotDr André Roca

André is the MSc Performance Football Coaching Programme Director and a Senior Lecturer in Skill Acquisition and Coaching at St Mary’s University. He also co-leads the University’s Expert Performance and Skill Acquisition (EPSA) Research Group. Outside the University, André works as a Foundation Phase Coach at a category one football Premier League club academy in London and regularly provides skill acquisition and coaching consultancy support for various sporting organisations and clubs worldwide.

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Specialisms

André’s primary research interests focus on the study of sporting expertise, in particular, the examination of the perceptual and cognitive factors that underpin expert performance and decision-making.

MRes project areas

There are three broad areas that André would like to invite MRes candidates to complete projects in. For some projects, there will be opportunities to work with elite sports teams. These are:

  • Determining the perceptual-cognitive processes behind expert decision making and creativity in sport
  • How to facilitate the acquisition of such skills via appropriate training design, instruction and feedback provision
  • Examining the practice-history profiles of elite athletes

Contact

Email: andre.roca@stmarys.ac.uk