A Perception–Action Assessment of the Functionality of Peripheral Vision in Expert and Novice Australian Footballers

in Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

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Derek Panchuk Movement Science, Australian Institute of Sport, Bruce, ACT, Australia
Derek Panchuk Consulting, Canberra, ACT, Australia

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Michael Maloney Movement Science, Australian Institute of Sport, Bruce, ACT, Australia

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2021-0121
Keywords:
visual perception; affordances; visual field; sports vision testing; representative design; football
First Published Online:
09 Jul 2022
In Print:
Volume 44: Issue 5
Page Range:
327–334
Restricted access

While widely acknowledged as being important for team-sport performance, the contribution of peripheral vision is poorly understood. This study aimed to better understand the role of far peripheral vision in team sport by exploring how domain experts and novices used far peripheral vision to support decision making and action control. Expert (n = 25) and novice (n = 23) Australian football players completed a perception-only task to assess the extent of their peripheral field. Next, they completed two sport-specific variations (response and recognition) of a “no-look” pass task that required passing a ball to a teammate who appeared in their far peripheral field. In the perception-only task, novices outperformed experts. However, in the sport-specific action response and recognition tasks, experts demonstrated superior performance as they responded to the stimulus farther from central vision and more accurately. Results demonstrate expertise effects for the use of far peripheral vision in sport.

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