Decision-making performance and self-generated knowledge in handball-defense patterns: a case of representational redescription

Magnaguagno, Lukas; Hossner, Ernst-Joachim; Schmid, Jürg; Zahno, Stephan (2023). Decision-making performance and self-generated knowledge in handball-defense patterns: a case of representational redescription. German journal of exercise and sport research, 53(2), pp. 217-224. Springer 10.1007/s12662-022-00868-1

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n sport games, perceptual–cognitive skills are discussed as a decisive aspect of players’ expertise. However, an understanding of the relationship between these skills and actual game performance is limited, particularly, regarding the role of pattern identification and situational-probability estimation in performance. The present study thus aimed to examine how identification of teammates’ defensive qualities relates to decisionmaking performance in a 3:3 virtual-reality defensive task. Examining data collected in two previously published studies, we analyzed the relationship between explicit pattern detection and response correctness, and also as a function of players’ experience. Experience was operationalized as either expertise level (Experiment 1) or taskspecific experience (Experiment 2). As expected, the explicit detection of a gamespecific pattern was found to be facilitated by experience. However, the results imply that it is accumulated experience that enhances decision-making performance rather than the degree of self-generated explicit knowledge. This finding supports the notion of “representational redescription” as introduced by Karmiloff-Smith (1994). For sports practice, this suggests that the pattern identification demonstrated by skilled athletes should not be overestimated as a predictor of game performance, while the explicit provision of knowledge might be beneficial for less-skilled athletes, particularly in situations of high uncertainty.

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