Abstract

Action theory is regarded to be suitable to describe and to explain the sportsmans activity. Its methodological implications, however, necessitate many changes from classical empirical designs. To investigate route planning and decision making processes in orienteering, two laboratory studies and one field study have been conducted. Skilled male Swiss orienteers served as subjects. Both information processed in the tachistocopical and the construction experiment in order to define, to evaluate and to select a route, as well as the route chosen have been analyzedand compared with the decisions in the field study. The findings indicate the importance of subjective valuations of the situtional determinants and allow the identification of more and less successful information processing and decision strategies. Verf.-Referat