Constraints on the search for visual information in sport

The ability to locate and identify relevant visual information is essential for skillful behavior in sport. Performers are required to move the eyes around the display in an efficient manner and to extract critical information using the fovea, parafovea, and/or visual periphery. According to traditional cognitive perspectives, the visual search patterns employed by performers are thought to be prescribed in an almost a-priori manner by a symbolic code or knowledge map. In this article, we consider an alternative theoretical framework that views search behavior as being an emergent phenomenon based on the unique constraints that exist at any given moment. We present evidence to illustrate how visual search behaviors are shaped in a dynamic manner by the unique constraints imposed by the task, the environment, and the individual characteristics of the performer. Although empirical evidence is needed to clarify and support a constraints-based explanation of visual search behavior, the ideas are intuitively appealing, and may have significant implications for theory and practice.