Beyond the Call: Examining Referee Decisions, Competence Development, and Objective Assessment in Sports

This dissertation scrutinises various processes involved in referees’ decision-making across diverse contextual scenarios, particularly emphasising how referees adjust their decision priorities when implementing game management strategies. The research methodology employed in the individual papers is primarily grounded in the Decision Field Theory, specifically tailored for referees, utilising the Threshold Process Model. Additionally, peripheral topics include the significance of specific visual abilities for referees, the impact of perspective on decision-making accuracy, and the potential of alternative evaluation processes to assess decision quality. Comprising a total of five manuscripts, this dissertation consists of one theoretical paper and four experimental studies addressing different facets of decision-making and related aspects of refereeing. Key findings encompass the compensatory nature of game management (Manuscript 1), referees’ inclination towards milder decisions when employing game management (Manuscript 2), the expertise exhibited by professional referees in tasks involving spatial anticipation (Manuscript 3), the benefits of integrating a first-person perspective in video-based decision experiments (Manuscript 4), and the potential of artificial intelligence in objectively and accurately assessing decision quality (Manuscript 5). Furthermore, the research identifies the necessity for future studies, including a comprehensive examination of how individual differences influence referees’ decision-making, a longitudinal exploration of the training impact of video-based decision training using first-person perspective recordings, and the implementation of artificial intelligence for referees’ decision evaluation. Overall, this dissertation offers new insights into the intricacies of decision-making, underscoring the importance of studying referees as a specific population to devise innovative approaches for assessing and enhancing decision quality.