{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,10]],"date-time":"2026-06-10T05:00:43Z","timestamp":1781067643863,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,10]],"date-time":"2026-06-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1781049600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002397","name":"Shanghai University of Sport","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["11DZ2261100"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["11DZ2261100"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002397","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Modern football imposes considerable demands on referees' rapid foul judgements, yet the dissociation between accuracy and efficiency of officiating expertise across different foul situations remains poorly characterized.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The present study compared 15 national-level and 15 Class-3 male football referees in three typical situations: ball-contesting, tactical foul and handball. Participants viewed 30 real-match video clips and made one technical and one disciplinary decision per clip while an EyeLink 1000 Plus eye tracker recorded global eye-movement indices and area-of-interest (AOI) measures. Data were analyzed with 2 (group) \u00d7 3 (situation) mixed-design ANOVAs and independent-samples\n                      <jats:italic>t<\/jats:italic>\n                      -tests.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Decision accuracy did not differ between groups for either technical or disciplinary judgements, although a robust situation main effect was observed [technical accuracy\n                      <jats:italic>F<\/jats:italic>\n                      <jats:sub>(2,56)<\/jats:sub>\n                      = 116.45,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.001, \u03b7\n                      <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.81; disciplinary accuracy\n                      <jats:italic>F<\/jats:italic>\n                      <jats:sub>(2,56)<\/jats:sub>\n                      = 13.73,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.001, \u03b7\n                      <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.33]. For decision efficiency, disciplinary reaction time showed a Group \u00d7 Situation interaction [\n                      <jats:italic>F<\/jats:italic>\n                      <jats:sub>(2,56)<\/jats:sub>\n                      = 4.16,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.021, \u03b7\n                      <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.13]; simple-effect analysis indicated that national-level referees responded faster than Class-3 referees in ball-contesting situations [\n                      <jats:italic>F<\/jats:italic>\n                      <jats:sub>(1,28)<\/jats:sub>\n                      = 6.07,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.020, \u03b7\n                      <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.18]. Pupil diameter showed an analogous interaction (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.026), although within-situation simple effects did not reach significance. AOI analyses revealed that national-level referees fixated the upper body of the fouling player earlier in ball-contesting situations [\n                      <jats:italic>t<\/jats:italic>\n                      (26.02) = \u22122.38,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.024,\n                      <jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.87] and revisited the attacker's lower body and the defender's upper body less often in handball situations (both\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.05,\n                      <jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2265 0.80).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Within this video-based task, expertise-related differences emerged primarily in efficiency-related indices rather than overall accuracy; sample size, the simulated nature of the stimuli and ceiling-or-near-chance effects in some conditions limit generalization, and the findings warrant validation in real-match settings.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1871146","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,10]],"date-time":"2026-06-10T04:29:59Z","timestamp":1781065799000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Visual search behavior and decision-making in expert and less-experienced football referees across different foul situations: an eye-tracking study"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Zilu","family":"Zhou","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Football, Shanghai University of Sport","place":["Shanghai, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rancheng","family":"Tao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Football, Shanghai University of Sport","place":["Shanghai, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kongyun","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Complex Systems Group & GISC (Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos), Universidad Rey Juan Carlos","place":["M\u00f3stoles, Spain"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Changjing","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Football, Shanghai University of Sport","place":["Shanghai, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1278","DOI":"10.1080\/1750984X.2022.2145574","article-title":"Executive function and visual attention in sport: a systematic review","volume":"17","author":"Brimmell","year":"2024","journal-title":"Int. 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