Gaze Behavior of Referees in Sport—A Review

Abstract

The purpose of this review was to examine the literature on gaze behavior in referees. A literature search found only 12 relevant studies. Five of those studies were conducted on referees in association football (soccer), three on judges in gymnastics, one on softball umpires, and one each on referees in team handball, rugby, and ice hockey. Seven studies reported differences in gaze behavior between referees of a higher skill level and those of a lower skill level, while four studies found no differences. In addition, five studies reported differences between referees of different skill levels in both gaze behavior and performance, while four studies found differences in performance only. A number of methodological concerns arise from the current review. Among them are the lack of studies conducted in ecologically valid conditions, the lack of studies on peripheral vision, and the lack of data on referees who are working together as teams. Based on this review, we conclude that additional research is needed to clarify the relationships between gaze behavior and performance in refereeing. Practitioners who work with referees should be cautious when adopting gaze training strategies to improve selective attention, since the data on their effectiveness are scarce and sometimes contradictory.

Training and development in sport officials: A systematic review

“…Some training studies manipulated perceptual information presented in such videos through blurring perceptual information 56 , adjusting the temporal ordering of decision situations (i.e., mixed vs. in context) 5 , and altering video speed 60 . Recommedations for future video‐based approaches include manipulating the difficulty of decision situations presented 34 and training visual search strategies 74 …”

Into the Eyes of the Referee: A Comparison of Elite and Sub-Elite Football Referees’ On-Field Visual Search Behaviour when making Foul Judgements

“…Visual search behaviour has been studied extensively in different sports, 7,8 with the findings generally showing elite performance to be characterised by differences in visual search behaviour that depend on the sport and even the specific scenario within that sport. 8 In interceptive sports, an elite athlete's visual search behaviour is often characterised by less fixations of longer duration, 10 whereas in invasive sports it is often more fixations of less duration.…”

“…Spitz et al 15 ) Here we focus on interceptors, and in particular on football referees. A recent literature review by Ziv et al 7 revealed there is no consistent finding or behaviour that underpins an expert sports official's visual search behaviour. First, contrary findings are found between sports.…”

“…6 Nonetheless, for a referee visual perception is crucial. Research has shown that sport-specific visual behaviours characterise elite performance, both in referees 7 and in athletes. 8 Enhanced gaze behaviour has been proposed to be a result of optimal information-reduction, with elite performers better able to distinguish relevant from irrelevant sources of information and to accordingly allocate gaze towards the most relevant sources of information.…”

The Effect of Endurance, Eye-Hand Coordination, and Confidence to Volleyball Referee Performance in West Java

“…Hand gestures must be made quickly, so it requires good eye-hand coordination-eyes to see events that involve the coordination of the retina and extra retina. Reference [14] stated that hand-eye coordination depends on a combination of retinal and extraretinal signals necessary for accurate movement. Meanwhile, hands give the signal for errors [15].…”