Attentional Focus of Sport Spectators

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that a player possessing the ball, i.e., the actor, is the most salient component of a football scenario and that, consequently, spectators tend to focus their attention on this person, subjects were asked to view a series of short video clips depicting college football plays. Subjects were asked to state their focus of attention following each clip As predicted, subjects reported greater focus on the actor than on other aspects of the environment. Potential explanations are proposed for the unexpected finding that attention became decreasingly actor-oriented as the video progressed.