Cognition in elite soccer players: a general model

Abstract

This paper presents a general model of the cognitive processes involved in each play situation of soccer at the elite level. Theoretically the model draws on general frameworks from cognitive psychology and neuroscience, in particular the affordance competition hypothesis and the reward prediction error theory. The model includes three functional stages: situational assessment, action selection and execution, and outcome assessment. The three stages form a perception-action cycle that corresponds to a single play situation. The cognitive processes operating at each functional stage are described and related to soccer research by a review of 52 empirical studies. The review covers the main cognitive processes that have been studied in soccer research: visual orientation and attention, pattern recognition, anticipation, working memory, action selection and decision making, executive control processes, as well as behavioral and cognitive learning. The model accommodates the wide variety of findings in the empirical literature and provides a general organizing frame for cognitive soccer research at the elite level. The influence of emotional and stress-related factors on cognition are also discussed. Four general limitations of the existing soccer research are identified, and suggestions for future studies include development of more naturalistic and interventional study designs. By specifying the different cognitive processes in soccer and their dynamic interactions the model has many applied perspectives for soccer training at the professional level. Overall, the paper presents the first integrated process model of cognition in elite soccer players with implications for both research and practice.