Perceptual and cognitive skills in the decision-making of football referees
- Autores: Carlos Albaladejo Garcia
- Directores de la Tesis: Francisco Javier Moreno Hernández (dir. tes.), Carla Caballero Sánchez (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche ( España ) en 2024
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Francisco David Barbado Murillo (presid.), Javier Sánchez Sánchez (secret.), Ian Cunningham (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Deporte y Salud por la Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche
- Materias:
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- Resumen
Previous research has explored athletes' cognitive functions, frequently reporting enhanced cognitive and executive functions in athletes compared to non-athletes. The sports environment is believed to develop these capabilities through the unpredictable and unexpected stimuli encountered during training and competition. Moreover, evidence supports the notion that higher levels of competition correlate with greater cognitive abilities in athletes.
In this context, the current doctoral thesis aimed to address the executive function of inhibitory control using the Stop-Signal Task, an assessment tool for response suppression. The project's objectives were to understand and clarify the state of response suppression executive function in sports, generally among athletes and specifically among football referees. Furthermore, it sought to establish a relationship between this skill and sport-specific decision-making. The main hypothesis posited that athletes would exhibit greater response suppression capacity as well as improved decision-making abilities. Specifically, it was anticipated that athletes and referees from higher competitive categories would demonstrate better results.
The research project was initiated with a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis to establish the current state of the field, with a primary focus on athletes (Study 1). Subsequent research studies were conducted on football referees. Specifically, Study 2 of the thesis followed a descriptive observational design to assess response suppression and decision-making capabilities in referees. Study 3 involved an intervention designed to measure the acute effect of a pre-competition warm-up on referees' response suppression and decision-making, providing a unique perspective on the topic.
Results from Study 1 confirmed that athletes show better response suppression values than non-athletes, indicated by shorter stop-signal reaction times. This effect was moderated by the age of the participants, with younger athletes displaying more pronounced differences against their non-athlete counterparts. Other variables, such as the type of sport and competitive level, showed slight indicators moderating the observed effect. Study 2 yielded similar findings in football referees, with national referees exhibiting better response suppression capabilities than their regional counterparts. There were no differences in the decision-making outcomes between the groups of referees. However, when the sample was regrouped into higher and lower response suppression groups, the referees with better response suppression showed higher decision-making accuracy, indicating its potential role during decision-making processes. Regarding Study 3, no changes were observed in higher-order cognitive functions (i.e., response suppression and decision-making capacities) after the warm-up. Thus, it was concluded that these capacities are in the same state at rest as in the initial phases of a match.
The findings presented in this doctoral thesis are not only significant but also have the potential to reshape our understanding of the field. Studies 1 and 2 underscore the crucial role of response suppression capacity in athletes and referees, potentially linked to improved decision-making. Although Study 3 did not yield the expected results, it opens up new avenues for research, particularly in evaluating the acute effect of physical load on response suppression and decision-making.
