Skill & expertise
Does working memory still matter for expert soccer decisions?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Better working memory went with faster soccer decisions just as much in professional players as in amateurs and recreational players, so years of practice did not remove its influence.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Three expertise groups (between-subject, not manipulated) completed two complex span tasks and a video tactical decision task with and without auditory distraction (the distraction condition was always second); moderation analysis tested expertise x WMC interactions.
- N
- 129 male players were tested (42 professional, 46 amateur, 41 recreational); two were excluded for incomplete tasks, so analyses used the remaining players.
- Population
- Adult male soccer players from Croatian and Bosnian professional, lower-league and recreational levels
- Outcome
- Speed (response time) and accuracy of choosing the better tactical option in soccer video clips, with and without auditory distraction; detection of own name in the ignored audio stream
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Key findings
Professionals decided faster and more accurately than the other two groups, for example averaging about 595 ms versus 705 ms in the quiet task. Higher working memory capacity predicted faster decisions in both tasks and more accurate decisions under distraction, but it did not predict accuracy in the quiet task. Crucially, the link between working memory and performance was the same at every expertise level, and Bayes factors favoured the no-interaction model (for example, 11.75 times more likely for response times). Own-name detection in the ignored audio did not depend on working memory or expertise.
Methodology
The researchers tested 129 male soccer players at three levels: professional, amateur and recreational. Each player watched short clips from real matches and chose which of two marked options (pass or shot) was best, once in quiet and once while a stream of spoken words played in the background that they had to ignore. Working memory capacity was measured with two complex span tasks (remembering letters while solving maths, and remembering grid locations while judging symmetry) and combined into one score.
Limitations
The groups were not randomly assigned and differ in many ways besides practice, so the study cannot say practice itself causes the expertise advantage. The distraction task always came second, so order effects could mix with distraction effects. The professionals were national-league players rather than world-class elites, and the authors concede working memory might matter less in truly exceptional players. Only men were tested, and a lab keyboard task with two pre-marked options is much simpler than a real on-pitch decision.
How this study connects
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