AUTHOR=Kassem Lael , Pang Bonnie , Dogramaci Sera , MacMahon Clare , Quinn John , Steel Kylie A. 

TITLE=Visual search strategies and game knowledge in junior Australian rules football players: testing potential in talent identification and development

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1356160

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1356160

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>This study explored video-based decision-making and eye-movement behavior as a complementary method to assess the decision-making skills and knowledge of elite junior Australian Rules (AR) Football players. Performance was measured twice over an 18-month period. This approach tested a practical and reliable assessment of decision-making and game knowledge that does not contribute to physical training load. <italic>N</italic> = 59 participants were categorized based on their training age groups, U14 (<italic>N</italic> = 38, <italic>M<sub>age</sub></italic>13.37 ± 0.47) and U16 (<italic>N</italic> = 21, <italic>M<sub>age</sub></italic>14.80 ± 0.39). Participants watched 14 brief video clips and provided action choices while wearing eye-movement recording glasses that captured visual search patterns (e.g., fixations). Decision accuracy and speed of decision-making were also recorded. Participants with accurate decisions made significantly faster decisions compared to less skilled players (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001). Further, skilled participants had significantly fewer fixations of shorter duration compared to less skilled participants at both the initial and follow-up testing sessions (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.0001). This suggests that eye-movement characteristics, remain a relatively stable measure over moderate periods of time. With the ability to differentiate between more and less skilled decision-makers, this proof-of-concept study proposes that examining eye movements in relation to decision-making and game knowledge is a viable tool for Talent Identification and Development (TID) to complement current measures. We provide a platform for further development and research in the quest for efficient and effective talent identification processes.</p>