The Effect of Blurred Perceptual Training on the Decision Making of Skilled Football Referees

Abstract

When judging ambiguous foul situations in football (soccer), referees must attune to the kinematic characteristics inherent in genuine fouls to ensure that they can (i) recognize when a foul has taken place, and (ii) discriminate the presence of deceptive intent on the part of the tackled player. The aim of this study was to determine whether perceptual training that removes superficial visual information would improve the decision-making performance of football referees. Two groups of skilled referees judged ambiguous foul situations on video before and after a training intervention that involved adjudicating foul situations. During the training phase, participants in a blurred-footage training group watched digitally altered, blurred videos that removed superficial visual information, whilst participants in a normal-footage control group viewed the same videos without blur (i.e., with the superficial information present). We hypothesized that blurred-training would train referees to ignore superficial visual information and instead focus on the basic kinematic movements that would better reveal the true nature of the inter-personal interaction. Consistent with this idea, training with blurred footage resulted in a positive change in response accuracy from pre to post-test when compared with normal-footage training. This improvement could not be explained on the basis of changes in response time or bias, but instead reflected a change in the sensitivity to genuine fouls. These findings provide a promising indication of the potential efficacy of blurred-footage training for referees to attune to the kinematic information that characterizes a foul. Blurred training might offer an innovative means of enhancing the decision-making performance of football referees via perceptual training.

The Perception of Deceptive Information Can Be Enhanced by Training That Removes Superficial Visual Information

“…Skilled observers would be expected to already be more proficient in their ability to anticipate deceptive actions ( Jackson et al, 2006 ), and so it is often considered to be more challenging to improve the already high anticipatory skill of better performers. Nonetheless, a concurrent study by van Biemen et al (in review) has provided some suggestion that blurred perceptual training might also improve the decision making performance of skilled observers. In that study, evidence was found to suggest that the ability of skilled football referees to discriminate deceptive from non-deceptive actions (fouls vs. ‘dives’ in football) improved as a result of training when viewing blurred actions.…”

Training and development in sport officials: A systematic review

“…Seven studies assessed decision accuracy changes in central officials' subjective judgements of one‐on‐one player contact decisions (football, n = 3; Australian rules football, n = 2; rugby union, n = 1) and of novice students' subjective decisions regarding player contact situations (“Swirl ball,” n = 1). Of the six central official training studies, four studies yielded an average percentage accuracy improvement of 5.9% (min = 4%, 56 max = 8.4% 37 using video‐based methods). One study showed an 8.1% improvement in decision accuracy in context‐specific decisions compared to not, 5 while two other studies found significant differences in decision accuracy improvement between skill groups (17.4%, low‐ranked developing and 3.6%, high‐ranked expert officials 37 ; 8%, less‐experienced, and 2%, more experienced sport officials 55 ).…”

“…Studies primarily used isolated video decision situations (from a 3 rd person perspective) as the mode to train perceptual‐cognitive skills. 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 …”

Sport Cyberpsychology in Action During the COVID-19 Pandemic (Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Possibilities): A Narrative Review

“…However, video analysis has also been introduced into various sport settings for other beneficial purposes, such as into stadia to help officials make on-field decisions regarding the scoring of goals, tries or points. They also help them to review and adjudicate potential illegal actions by athletes during competitive events and then whether or not to issue various penalties, such as red, yellow or black cards in sports such as soccer, rugby, tennis, basketball and Gaelic football for example ( van Biemen et al, 2018 ; Sors et al, 2019 ). Video play back has also become part of the normal spectator and fan-experience when watching sport, either from their homes or in person in stadia during breaks in competition or play ( Arkenberg et al, 2019 ).…”