Sport and Exercise Science

Profile

Background

Matt joined the Department in 2013 from the VU University in Amsterdam, where he was working as a post-doctoral research fellow. Between 2000 and 2004, Matt studied both a BSc (Hons) and an MSc degree in the Department of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Portsmouth. Following the completion of his MSc, Matt worked as a research assistant in sport psychology at the University of Chichester, before moving to New Zealand to study a Ph.D in skill acquisition at the University of Otago. He spent a total of 3 ½ years living in New Zealand, and a further 6 months as a visiting researcher at Queensland University of Technology in Australia. Matt returned to Europe in 2010, working as a skill acquisition/coach education lecturer in football at the German Sports University Cologne. In 2011, Matt was awarded a post-doctoral research fellowship by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, and subsequently joined the MOVE Research Institute Amsterdam at the VU University Amsterdam. Matt has worked with professional sports teams and international sport organisations, most notably, in New Zealand and the Netherlands.

Teaching Responsibilities

Matt contributes to teaching in the area of skill acquisition across the undergraduate and postgraduate courses including an Introduction to Sport and Exercise Psychology, Coaching Principles, Psychology of Skill Development, and Performance and Applied Skill Acquisition and Expertise. Matt also supervises undergraduate and MSc research projects, and is currently on the supervisory committee of three PhD students.

Research Interests

Matt’s primary research interests are focused on the study of interpersonal perceptual expertise and the visual control of movement. The theoretical outlook of Matt’s research is based on contemporary perspectives informed by James Gibson’s ecological approach to visual perception. During his Ph.D thesis, he studied perceptual skill in sport, using the penalty kick in football as an experimental task. Some of the projects Matt is currently undertaking include investigation of joint attention, deception, and the visual control of walking interactions. This research is conducted across a number of different experimental paradigms including sport situations (e.g., penalty kicks), interpersonal interactions (e.g., corridor walking), and instances of interpersonal deceptive expertise (e.g., magic tricks).

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Funding

2011               Rubicon Fellowship Award,                                           

                       Social Sciences Division,

                        Funded by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific

                        Research and the Marie Curie Cofund Action                  (110,000 Euros)

2009                 School of Human Movement Studies,

                         Queensland University of Technology,

                         Visiting Postgraduate Research Bursary                         ($5, 000 AUD)

2008                 ISRRNZ Cricket Decision-Making,

                         Research Studentship                                                    ($10,000 NZD)

2008                 University of Otago, Division of Sciences,

                         Conference Award                                                          ($2,000 NZD)

2006 - 2009      University of Otago Postgraduate Scholarship               ($60,000 NZD)