Shaping decision-making behavior by perceiving the dynamic patterns of interper...

• Author(s): Travassos, Bruno Filipe Rama
• Date: 2011
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/3779
• Origin: Repositório da UTL
• Subject(s): Affordances; Constraints; Couplings; Decision-making; Expertise; Futsal; Game-dynamics; Interpersonal coordination; Acoplamentos; Auto-organização; Constrangimentos; Coordenação interpessoal; Dinâmica de jogo; Percepção-acção; Perícia; Tomada de decisão
• Document Type: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Advisor(s): Araújo, Duarte Fernando Rosa Belo Patronilho de

Description

Doutoramento em Motricidade Humana na especialidade de Ciências do Desporto The aim of this thesis was to investigate the informational constraints that guide performance of individuals and teams in sport. An initial meta-analysis of the effects of expertise on decision-making revealed stronger effects with more homogeneous results in performance contexts and when individuals were allowed to perform sport actions. Based on this conclusion, all of our empirical experiments were developed using a specific sub-phase of competitive futsal games. Analysis of ball passing performance revealed that the decision to pass a ball to a teammate was regulated by spatial constraints through the coupling of interpersonal distance values between players at the moment of pass initiation. Furthermore, the success of the pass was well predicted by a proposed variable defined as Time to Ball Interception. In order to understand how ball dynamics and goal position constrained interpersonal relations between players we also investigated how patterns of interpersonal coordination between players emerged during different sub-phases of the game. It was observed that the ball and the goal represent key performance constraints which shape the emergent patterns of coordination between players and teams. Different coordination dynamics for defenders and attackers were observed, which was consistent with different team objectives In conclusion, all the studies contributed to a better understanding of how individual players or teams adapted their behaviors to the changing conditions of the performance environment, in order to successfully perform.