Abstract

Times-stress and uncertrainty characterize most (open) sport situations. They demand athletes to process visual information in order to analyze and to interpret the situation and also in order to perform the motor response with maximum accuracy. This characterizes a (semantic/sensorimotor) trade-off which forces the athlete to process in order to adapt his response to fit the situation. Processing of this trade-off is easy when no time-stress occurs and when motor complexity is reduced, while it is extremely difficult in complex situations like in (open) motor skill. Studying the visual behavior involved in different open sports we proposed to make a distinction between the (semantic) and the (sensorimotor) visual function. The role of the semantic visual function is to identify and to interpret the situation in which the athlete participates; the role of the sensorimotor visual function is to carry out the visuo-motor response. How do understanding and acting interact in complex sport situations? What is the effect of time-stress and uncertaintly on them? What information processing startegy does the subject use to take account of the semantic/sensorimotor trade-off? These question are examined in studying, in the field athletes visual behavior (recorded by a video-oculographic technique) and motor behavior (recorded by video or rapid cinematography) in two characteristic open activities. Different levels of processing are identified, then a general model describing the understanding-acting process in sport is presented. Verf.-Ref.