Institute of Physical Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
Sci Rep. 2024 Sep 14;14(1):21498. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-72251-z.
As a sport conducted in dynamically changing natural environments, orienteering places high demands on athletes' cognitive processing abilities and visual search efficiency. However, previous studies on orienteering have been primarily limited by the use of fixed stimulus materials on computer screens, which are unable to fully simulate authentic sports scenarios. To better understand the sports expertise of orienteering athletes in terms of their real scene image recognition performance and visual search characteristics, this study recruited 40 orienteering athletes, both experts and novices, as participants. By utilizing eye-tracking technology and setting observation points in real-world scenarios to conduct image recognition task tests, the ecological validity of the experiment was further enhanced. The results showed that the experts demonstrated a high level of accuracy and a short response time, with visual search characteristics including few saccade counts, low fixation frequency, concentrated fixation points, simple and clear fixation paths, and higher visual search efficiency. This study further reveals that long-term specialized training will lead to the formation of a unique cognitive structure related to the specific knowledge and long-term memory required by expert orienteering athletes, thereby promoting the development of expert advantage.
作为一项在动态变化的自然环境中进行的运动，定向运动对运动员的认知加工能力和视觉搜索效率提出了很高的要求。然而，以往关于定向运动的研究主要受到计算机屏幕上固定刺激材料的限制，这些材料无法完全模拟真实的运动场景。为了更好地理解定向运动员在真实场景图像识别表现和视觉搜索特征方面的运动专长，本研究招募了 40 名定向运动员，包括专家和新手，作为参与者。通过利用眼动跟踪技术和在真实场景中设置观察点来进行图像识别任务测试，进一步提高了实验的生态有效性。结果表明，专家表现出较高的准确性和较短的反应时间，其视觉搜索特征包括较少的眼跳次数、较低的注视频率、集中的注视点、简单清晰的注视路径以及更高的视觉搜索效率。本研究进一步揭示，长期的专门训练将导致形成一种独特的认知结构，这种认知结构与专家定向运动员所需的特定知识和长期记忆有关，从而促进了专家优势的发展。
