Oliver Richard Runswick

Visual exploratory activity (VEA) is a key perceptual skill that helps soccer players adapt to an ever-changing environment (Hintermann et al., 2024). Visual exploratory behaviour has been defined ...

Research on artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is rapidly evolving. Employees’ perceptions of AI are of increasing interest, particularly in relation to their psychological wellbeing and performance outcomes. This systematic review extends existing research by synthesising recent empirical evidence on the impact of AI among back-office employees across a range of industries and functions, an occupational group that is particularly exposed to AI-driven technologies. Following PRISMA guidelines, eight databases were searched for peer-reviewed empirical studies published in English between January 2022 and January 2026. A total of 40 eligible studies were included in the review. Findings indicated that employee perceptions of AI were largely positive, although experiences across industries and occupations varied. AI adoption and performance outcomes were commonly related to perceived usefulness, ease of use, and the extent to which the organisation was ready to adopt AI. These outcomes were also associated with fears of job displacement and de-skilling, but these relationships were unexamined quantitatively. AI’s workplace value appears contingent on employee perceptions and organisational context, rather than just on the technology. Key words: AI at work, AI adoption, back-office employees, technology acceptance

Visual perception – the process through which visual information from the environment is acquired and interpreted to form meaningful representations – plays a key role in elite sports performance. However, the role of basic visual and perceptual functions in elite sport remains unclear.This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesise the literature examining the basic visual perception of elite fast-paced ball sport athletes. Specifically, it aimed to determine whether basic visual and perceptual functions A) can differentiate elite athletes from both sub-elite athletes and non-athletes and B) are associated with sport-specific performance metrics. A systematic literature search of Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed was conducted following PRISMA guidelines, including only studies that examined basic visual (e.g. visual acuity) and perceptual (depth perception) functions. Three-level meta-analyses with robust variance estimation were conducted on studies comparing elite athletes to both sub-elite athletes and non-athletes. Studies investigating associations between basic visual-perceptual function and sport performance were described via narrative synthesis.Twenty-six studies met the inclusion criteria. Nineteen studies compared the basic visual-perceptual functions of elite athletes with sub-elite and/or non-athletes, five studies examined associations with sports performance metrics, while two studies addressed both questions. Of the 18 comparative studies, seven studies with non-athlete control groups and six studies with sub-elite control groups met the criteria for meta-analysis; the remaining studies were analysed via narrative synthesis. A large enhancement in basic visual-perceptual function was observed in elite athletes relative to non-athletes (Hedges’ g = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.40-1.29, p < 0.01), equating to a 72% probability that a randomly selected elite athlete would outperform a randomly selected non-athlete on a basic visual-perceptual task. No corresponding enhancement was observed in the comparison between elite and sub-elite athletes (Hedges’ g = 0.12, 95% CI: -0.15-0.39, p = 0.29). Moderator analyses revealed that enhancements in basic visual-perceptual functions were larger for basic perceptual functions than basic visual functions. Furthermore, there was evidence to suggest that enhanced basic visual-perceptual function is associated with better sports performance metrics, particularly for interceptive sports such as baseball and cricket.The findings from this review highlight that basic visual and perceptual functions can differentiate elite athletes from non-athletes, but not athletes from lower competitive levels. These findings have theoretical implications for our understanding of the factors involved in sports talent development, as well as practical implications for the use of vision training protocols aimed at improving sports performance.

During the acquisition of novel motor skills, the difficulty of the task impacts how efficiently that learning takes place (Guadagnoli & Lee, 2004; Hodges & Lohse, 2022). Although nominal task diff...

Data visualisations are widely used in medical contexts to support informed consent and shared decision-making, and may particularly benefit patients with low health literacy and numeracy. However, visual acuity loss, a common and increasingly prevalent impairment, may limit their effectiveness. This study examined whether individuals can still draw appropriate inferences from visualisations under degraded acuity. Sixty participants with normal or corrected vision completed a within-subject experiment with simulated acuity loss at four levels (no acuity loss, mild, moderate, and severe acuity loss). Participants viewed bar charts, pie charts, and icon arrays, with gist and verbatim understanding and decision quality assessed. Results showed that knowledge and decision quality declined as acuity decreased, with severe acuity loss reducing decision accuracy to near-chance levels for pie and bar charts. However, icon arrays consistently supported better gist and verbatim understanding, reduced decisional reliance on medical professionals, and improved decision quality across all acuity conditions.

This study examines how academic assessors judge the presence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in student essays and the cues they use in making those judgments. Sixteen experienced markers from a UK undergraduate psychology programme graded four essays under blinded conditions: two student-written and two produced with ChatGPT 3.5 assistance. Markers assigned grades, judged whether GenAI assistance had been used, rated their confidence in their judgment and explained their reasoning. Overall accuracy in distinguishing student-written from GenAI-assisted essays was modest (62.5%), with slightly better performance for student-written work. Grades and confidence did not differ by condition. Qualitative analysis showed that markers relied on cues such as structure, style, voice, and perceived academic integrity, but also revealed contradictions and misconceptions about what counts as GenAI-assisted writing. These findings highlight the difficulty of unaided detection and suggest a need for assessment redesign and staff development to support transparent, ethical GenAI use while maintaining academic standards.

Immersive technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), offer new opportunities for testing and training in sport. This is particularly the case in seasonal sports, such as cricket, where the climate can constrain outdoor representative training. An understanding of fine construct validity, which differentiates between closely matched players, and of players' perceptions of VR, is needed for high-performance organisations to be confident in their use. We compared performance in a VR cricket batting simulator across 50 specialist batters, bowlers and all-rounders from a women's professional cricket pathway. Follow-up questionnaires gathered player opinions on the technology. Results partially supported fine construct validity through detecting differences in runs scored between groups (p = 0.010, η² p = 0.178). However, this only occurred between batters and bowlers, and the number of wickets lost was high, with no difference between groups. Players perceived a wide range of potential uses for VR in cricket batting training and testing. Results show promise for integrating VR technologies into high-performance cricket, but further work is required to understand biomechanical and ergonomic fidelity, the mechanisms driving wicket loss, and the optimal use cases.

1. In 2020, 157 million people had moderate-to-severe vision impairment (MSVI) from uncorrected refractive error (URE), which includes myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and presbyopia, which affect v...

Background: Self-paced tasks, like putting in golf, are executed under interacting task, environmental, and individual constraints. Purpose: However, contextual constraints such as previous performance and score are often absent in research investigating these tasks. Study sample/research design: Thirteen tour professional golfers were interviewed about their experiences of adapting to constraints when putting in competitive golf. Data analysis: We adopted a deductive theory driven reflexive thematic analysis based on previous work on contextual constraints in self-paced sporting tasks. Results: We generated 18 sub-themes, which were categorised into four themes of task (e.g., pace control and proximity to hole), individual (e.g., pressure and self-expectations), environmental (e.g., green difficulty and weather conditions), and contextual constraints (e.g., consequences and performance). Conclusions: Findings give practitioners a unique insight into what professional golfers experience in competition, and we offer practical suggestions on how to best support golfers in performance environments.

Virtual reality technologies offer sports performance organisations new possibilities for measuring and enhancing performance. This is particularly the case in cricket where training is significantly constrained by weather and seasons, but game understanding is vital to high‐level performance. Before implementation, new simulations need to be tested for construct validity to ensure the virtual environment accurately represents the real‐world performance setting, and for reliability to ensure that improvements in performance can be accurately measured over time. Therefore, this study aimed to test the construct validity and reliability of a commercially available virtual reality cricket batting simulator. To test construct validity, we compared performance in the simulator across novice, club level, and elite performance pathway (EPP) cricket players. To test reliability novice and club participants completed the test four times across two separate days. Results supported construct validity through detecting differences in runs scored ( p < 0.001) and wickets ( p = 0.032) lost between the groups, however EPP and club players lost considerably more wickets than would be expected. Strong correlations and low bias between visits showed within‐ and between‐day agreement and reliability. Results support the suitability of this VR simulator in measuring runs scored in cricket batting but suggests players may take more risks and lose more wickets in a virtual setting.