3 Seminar Two

In the lecture this week you will have learnt about the process of performing a literature review. You might recall that in order to develop an effective search strategy we must first determine the topic/focus of the review and formulate a research question.

From this seminar onwards you will be planning and conducting a literature review on a mutually agreed topic as a group (facilitated by your seminar tutor). While the planning and conduct of this review will be performed as a group during seminar time, the findings will be written up individually and submitted for assessment. Your seminar attendance is therefore critical to your success on this module; if you are unable to make a seminar for any reason it is your responsibility to catch up on the activities you have missed.

3.1 Task 1

Using the examples below can you identify for each of the questions the following:

1. The intervention/exposure of interest
2. The outcome measure
3. The population being studied

• Sports Therapy:

1. The effectiveness of cryotherapy intervention on perceived pain and exertion in people with delayed onset muscle soreness
2. The effectiveness of post operative knee bracing on physical function after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction
3. The effectiveness of foam rolling before activity (pre-rolling) on physical performance in healthy, young to middle-aged adults

• Sports and Exercise:

1. The effectiveness of high intensity interval training on \(\dot{V}O_2peak\) and/or \(\dot{V}O_2max\) in healthy, young to middle-aged adults
2. The effectiveness of velocity based resistance training interventions on physical performance and/or function in healthy, young to middle-aged adults
3. The effectiveness of supervised compared to home based resistance training on physical performance in healthy, young to middle-aged adults

• Sports Psychology:

1. The effectiveness of goal setting in sport on physical performance in healthy, young to middle-aged adults
2. The effectiveness of pre-performance routines in sport on physical performance in healthy, young to middle-aged adults
3. The effectiveness of imagery interventions on physical performance in healthy, young to middle-aged adults

3.2 Task 2

Split your seminar group into three subgroups and in each group nominate a note taker.

Using the research questions above based on the course you are studying, discuss in your groups what you already know on each of the topics (without doing any research).

Feedback to the seminar group and collate your ideas.

3.3 Task 3

Now we know what you know about each of these topics, each group will be given one of the three topics to research further. Consider the following,

• what is the intervention? (defintion, examples etc)
• how is it typically administered? (intensity, dosage, duration, frequency, type etc)
• what are the proposed benefits?
• are there any harms/adverse effects?
• how does the intervention work? (biological/physiological mechanism)

Feedback to the seminar group.

3.4 Task 4

As a group, decide on one of (or a variation of) the research questions listed within your discipline. This will become the topic for your literature review and assessment.

For the remainder of this seminar, see what you can find out about your chosen research question. Next week we will introduce you to academic search strategies and database searches.