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.
Highlights
To increase the chances that the best athlete or team will win competitions or games, referees have an official position in most of competitive individual and team sports, in order to ensure that the rules of the sporting event at hand are being applied (Bar-Eli et al, 2011)
We found four studies that examined the ability of assistant referees (ARs) to judge whether a player was on- or off-side (Catteeuw et al, 2009, 2010b; Luis et al, 2015; Schnyder et al, 2017), and one study that examined the ability to identify foul plays (Spitz et al, 2016)
Because gaze behavior did not differ between the referees, it is possible that international ARs— perhaps based on their greater experience—possess more optimal cognitive strategies to correct for this bias
Summary
To increase the chances that the best athlete or team will win competitions or games, referees (or—as they are called—judges, linesmen, officials, or umpires, depending upon the sport) have an official position in most of competitive individual and team sports, in order to ensure that the rules of the sporting event at hand are being applied (Bar-Eli et al, 2011). One study (Spitz et al, 2016) examined gaze behavior and decision accuracy of elite and sub-elite referees when judging videos of foul-play situations during open play and during corner kicks.
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