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Visual search behaviors of association football referees during assessment of foul play situations
Tijdschriftbijdrage - Tijdschriftartikel
It is well reported that expert athletes have refined perceptual-cognitive skills and fixate on more informative areas
during representative tasks. These perceptual-cognitive skills are also crucial to performance within the domain of
sports officials. We examined the visual scan patterns of elite and sub-elite association football referees while
assessing foul play situations. These foul play situations (open play and corner kick situations) were presented on a
Tobii T120 Eye Tracking monitor. The elite referees made more accurate decisions and differences in their visual
search behaviors were observed. For the open play situations, referees in the elite group spent significantly more
time fixating the most informative area of the attacking player (contact zone) and less time fixating the body part
that was not involved in the infringement (non-contact zone). Furthermore, the average total fixation time in the
contact zone and non-contact zone tended to differ between the elite and sub-elite referees in corner kick
situations. In conclusion, elite level referees have learned to discern relevant from less-relevant information in the
same way as expert athletes. Findings have implications for the development of perceptual training programs for
sport officials.
Tijdschrift: Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications
ISSN: 2365-7464
Issue: 12
Volume: 1
Jaar van publicatie:2016
Toegankelijkheid:Open