In recent years, we have been working on the application of a new experimental paradigm of eye movement research in sport. Perceptual research in sports psychology examines which visual information is used by athletes to prepare their own motor reactions (e.g. which movement characteristics does a soccer goalkeeper use to recognize the direction of a penalty kick? By which movement characteristics does a soccer goalkeeper recognize the direction of a penalty kick?). In this context, studies on eye movement behavior were conducted to record the fixation locations of athletes in various sporting situations. One difficulty in interpreting the results obtained here is that visual information is not only processed foveally, but visual information from the periphery is also used, particularly in sports games (peripheral vision).
With the method developed by us and the University of Münster (Dr. Jörg Schorer and Prof. Dr. Bernd Strauß), the VU University Amsterdam (Dr. Rouwen Cañal-Bruland) and the University of Hanover (Simone Lotz), it is now possible to control the amount of peripherally visible information. To do this, we use the so-called moving window technique, in which only a small part of the visual field around the fixation point is visible during fixation. No visual information can be captured outside this window. If the subject's eye moves or jumps, the window moves with it due to the computer-based coupling of the eye-tracking camera with the respective test program. In this way, depending on the size of the window, it can be ensured that only foveal (2°), parafoveal (up to 5°) or even peripheral information can be visually recorded during an eye movement. The significance of the different regions can be estimated by comparing them with the control condition without visual restriction.
