The role of different directions of attention on the extent of implicit perception in soccer penalty kicking.

Abstract

The role of different directions of attention on the extent of the off-center effect (penalty takers kick to the bigger side of the goal more often, although they explicitly perceive the goalkeeper in the center of the goal) was investigated for soccer penalty kicking. Regarding the directions of attention of the striker, two conflicting assumptions (attention is paid to the goalkeeper vs. attention is only spent on target) were directly contrasted. Participants viewed a goalkeeper standing either in the middle of the goal or being displaced by different distances to the left or right. In the goal-side-related instruction condition, participants had to indicate the greater goal side and already did so at above chance-level for small displacements of 0.1%, although they were not confident in their perceptual judgments, hinting at the occurrence of the off-center effect. They became mindful of displacements of 0.8% and larger when they indicated the goal side for kicking with greater confidence. In the goalkeeper-related instruction condition, participants were asked to choose a goal side for kicking, but only when they perceived the goalkeeper in the middle of the goal. Participants chose the greater goal side at above chance-level for small displacements of 0.2%. They became mindful of the displacement for a difference of 0.8%. However, when comparing the results of both instruction conditions statistically it turned out that the effect of different directions of attention on the off-center's extent differs from those previously reported. Participants were implicitly influenced by comparably small goalkeeper displacements, but became earlier aware of goalkeeper displacements in the goal-side-related instruction condition.