Research Interests
I have several research interests from my time on both undergraduate and postgraduate study.
Threat Perception
Threat perception is an defence mechanism which is linked with the ‘flight-or-fight response’. It is likely that this mechanism was developed for human survival. Several researchers suggest that threatening stimuli may be perceptually amplified, in order to give the individual more time to react to the threat, and choose the most appropriate response.
“Threat perception can be defined as when an individual categorises a perceived stimulus as a threat.
Holmshaw, 2019, P9
I have always been interested in survival and evolutionary mechanism’s, and find myself being intrigued with how humans perceive the environment, and it’s affect on decision making. In my undergraduate dissertation, I began to explore some of the effects of both threat perception, and manipulated action capabilities on decision making. My research question was entitled ‘Does the manipulation of action capabilities affect an individual’s perception of an opponent and a teammate?’ Specifically I explored if a player perceives an opponent to be more threatening than a teammate, and if the manipulation of the players action capabilities causes the player to perceive both the opponent and the teammate as more threatening compared to perceptions under normal action capabilities. Interestingly, my study found that a player perceives an opponent to be ‘more threatening (perceptually amplified) than a teammate when their action capabilities were manipulated.
Influence of the senior game on the junior grassroots game
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Sam Holmshaw 