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. 2023 Dec;13(12):e3298.
doi: 10.1002/brb3.3298. Epub 2023 Oct 24.

Visual search strategies of performance monitoring used in action anticipation of basketball players

Yawei Li  1 , Tian Feng  2 , Fuchun Zhang  3 , Umer Asgher  4 , Bingbing Yan  3 , Tianyu Peng  3
Affiliations

Visual search strategies of performance monitoring used in action anticipation of basketball players

Yawei Li et al. Brain Behav. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Introduction: Numerous studies have found that expert players anticipate better than novices. If more accurate prediction represents performance monitoring of experts, what are the advantages of elite basketball players in identifying and processing available cues? There is still a lack of sufficient evidence. This study examined the visual search in basketball players and explored the performance monitoring of action anticipation, adopting an expert-novice paradigm and eye-movement technology.

Methods: Forty basketball players were recruited in this study: 20 in the expert group and 20 in the novice group. Participants were asked to predict the outcome of videotaped basketball throws and their accuracy and eye-movement characteristics were record.

Results: The accuracy of the expert was significantly higher than that of the novice. The experts were able to instantly search and identify important cues in anticipation, and the gaze area of the experts was concentrated on the area of interest of the body. Additionally, the expert group showed long, repetitive, and rapid visual search of vital information, and improved their performance of the task.

Conclusion: The experts could monitor the performance of prediction by grabbing vital shooting information (such as the body of a player). The results suggest the athletes and coaches that if they want to improve the ability of prediction, it may be useful to shift their focus of attention from ball trajectory to body action.

Keywords: action anticipation; basketball player; eye-movement; performance monitoring; visual search.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The procedure of the experiment.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Division of the areas of interest during a free‐throw shooting from the beginning of body movement to the high point of ball trajectory. There are four regions for eye‐movement analysis: (1) the player's body, (2) ball shooting, (3) ball rising, and (4) the high point.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Comparison of the duration of the first fixation between the experts and novices.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Average fixation time for the area of interest of the experts and novices.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Fixation times for the area of interest in the experts and novices.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Sequences of the experts and novices looking at the area of interest for the first time.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Peak angular velocity of the area of interest in the experts and novices.
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Eye‐movement heat maps of the experts and novices.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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