There Is an "Eye" in Team: Exploring the Interplay Between Emotion, Gaze Behavior, and Collective Efficacy in Team Sport Settings

Eye-tracking technology and the dynamics of natural gaze behavior in sports: an update 2016-2022

Updating and complementing a previous review on eye-tracking technology and the dynamics of natural gaze behavior in sports, this short review focuses on the progress concerning researched sports tasks, applied methods of gaze data collection and analysis as well as derived gaze measures for the time interval of 2016-2022. To that end, a systematic review according to the PRISMA guidelines was conducted, searching Web of Science, PubMed Central, SPORTDiscus, and ScienceDirect for the keywords: eye tracking, gaze behavio*r, eye movement, and visual search. Thirty-one studies were identified for the review. On the one hand, a generally increased research interest and a wider area of researched sports with a particular increase in official's gaze behavior were diagnosed. On the other hand, a general lack of progress concerning sample sizes, amounts of trials, employed eye-tracking technology and gaze analysis procedures must be acknowledged. Nevertheless, first attempts to automated gaze-cue-allocations (GCA) in mobile eye-tracking studies were seen, potentially enhancing objectivity, and alleviating the burden of manual workload inherently associated with conventional gaze analyses. Reinforcing the claims of the previous review, this review concludes by describing four distinct technological approaches to automating GCA, some of which are specifically suited to tackle the validity and generalizability issues associated with the current limitations of mobile eye-tracking studies on natural gaze behavior in sports.

Effectiveness of Video Modeling in Improving Technical Skills in Young Novice Basketball Players: A Quasi-Experimental Study

(1) Objective: This is a quasi-experimental study that investigated the effect of four weeks of training sessions using video modeling (VM) on individual and collective technical skills in young novice basketball players. (2) Method: 20 players were equally assigned to either a control group (CG, n = 10; 12 ± 0.7 years) or a video modeling group (VMG, n = 10; 12.5 ± 0.5 years; visualizing videos before each session) were assessed before and after the four-week training period using the Basketball Skill Test of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance for individual techniques and three vs. three small-sided games for collective aspects. (3) Results: For the passing test, VMG induced higher performance than CG (p = 0.021; d = 0.87). For offensive balls post-intervention, higher values were recorded for VMG compared to CG (p = 0.003; d = 1.81). In addition, the number of attack balls index post-intervention was higher for VMG compared to CG (p = 0.001; d = 0.28). For losing the ball, VMG induced lower values than CG after the training intervention (p < 0.001; d = -3.23). The efficiency index was higher post-training compared to pre-training for VMG (p = 0.013; d = 1.24). (4) Conclusion: The study highlighted the importance of using video modeling as an effective strategy to improve technical skills and collective performance in novice young basketball players.

Effects of Group Emotion and Moral Belief on Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Mediating Role of Psychological Clustering

An important topic in ecological environmental protection concerns the determination of a method to guide individual pro-environmental behavior from the dual perspectives of immediate intervention and long-term shaping. This research analyzed the influence of group emotions and moral beliefs on the pro-environmental behavior of residents and introduces the concept of the "psychological cluster" to explore the mediating effect of the "psychological cluster" on group emotions, moral beliefs, the pro-environmental behavior of residents, and its various dimensions. The results of a questionnaire survey, factor analysis, regression analysis, and other methods showed that group emotions and moral beliefs can significantly the predict pro-environmental behaviors of residents, and moral beliefs have a significant impact on basic pro-environmental behaviors. Each dimension of the psychological cluster has a significant effect on pro-environmental behavior. Among them, the psychological cluster has the most significant effect on the citizen-type pro-environmental behavior. That is to say, when individuals are passionate about environmental causes, and feel angry and guilty about damaging the environment, they will be encouraged to actively participate in environmental protection activities in public places and give advice on environmental protection. Group emotion and moral belief can drive the occurrence of a psychological cluster, which leads to the generation of group behavior. In other words, psychological clustering acts as a "middleman" between group emotion, moral belief, and pro-environmental behavior of residents. However, its influence is not completely mediated via the psychological cluster. In summary, the psychological cluster plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between group emotion, moral belief, and the pro-environmental behavior of residents. Finally, corresponding policy suggestions are put forward based on this research.