North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity Conference

June 2011, Burlington, VT, United States of America

Organized sports, informal play, and the development of sport expertise: Reliability of retrospective recall

Melissa J. Hopwood 1, Joseph Baker 2 , Clare MacMahon 1 & Damian Farrow 1,3

1. Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

2. York University, Toronto, Canada

3. Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, Australia

A detailed examination of the reliability and validity of retrospective recall of information pertaining to the development of sport expertise was conducted during the construction of The Developmental History of Athletes Questionnaire (DHAQ). Despite previous emphasis on participation in organized sports and informal play as major contributors to the development of sport expertise, the current study questions the accuracy with which involvement in these activities is recalled. Fifteen Australian national level athletes completed the DHAQ on two occasions (Q1 and Q2), and participated in a semi-structured interview (I) relating to their involvement in their main sport, other organized sports, and informal, playful sporting games. Similar interviews were conducted with thirteen of these athletes' parents (P). Intraclass correlations (ICC) and percent agreement statistics (PA) were calculated to assess consistency of responses between test occasions. In examining participation in other organized sports, the number of sports reported by athletes during each test occasion appears to be reasonably consistent (Q1/Q2: PA = 69.85%, ICC = .61, p < .01; Q1/I: PA = 85.91%, ICC = .80, p < .01). However, closer inspection of the data reveals that the specific sports identified by individual athletes were not always the same. Additionally, although the consistency of recall for total cumulative hours of involvement in all other organized sports appears acceptable (Q1/Q2: PA = 71.59%, ICC = .98, p < .01), hours of participation in each specific sport were recalled with only moderate to poor consistency. Similar trends were observed during reporting of participation in informal, playful sporting games. Furthermore, although parent interviews are commonly conducted to triangulate athlete data, consistency of recall between athletes and their parents in this investigation was particularly poor. These results highlight important considerations for the analysis and interpretation of training data related to the development of sport expertise.

To cite this presentation:

Hopwood, M.J., Baker, J., MacMahon, C., & Farrow, D (2011). Organized sports, informal play, and the development of sport expertise: Reliability of retrospective recall. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 33, S158.

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An investigation of the development of sport expertise

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