ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the visual search behaviours of expert athletes and discusses whether it is possible to characterise their behaviour during anticipation and decision-making tasks. It provides an overview of some key research findings from the past 30 years. The chapter explores some of the mediating factors that influence visual search behaviour, including anxiety, contextual information, and performing a motor action. It considers whether it is possible to characterise the search behaviours of experts and focuses on requirements for future research. Superior anticipation in skilled athletes is underpinned by the use of both contextual information and by information pickup from the bodily cues inherent in an opponent’s action sequences. Gaze research in interceptive tasks where the ball bounces before bat-ball contact has uncovered additional features of gaze relied on by skilled athletes. When making tactical decisions in dynamic scenarios, the number of players or features within the scene can strongly alter the gaze of skilled and lesser-skilled performers.
