Effect Of Uniform Color And Range Of Motion On Referee Ratings And Visual Search Characteristics And Brain Mechanisms

In recent years,a number of studies have been conducted to examine the relationship between red uniform and competition performance.These studies focus on the combat sports and those sports which are evaluated by subjective scoring by referees were not examined.Moreover,little is known about the effect of red uniform on visual search strategy and its neural activities.Exploring these issues is not only of great significance to enrich the theory of perceptual motor skills,but also of practical value for guiding athletes in competition and improving referees’ performance.Therefore,the present study explored the above-mentioned issues with three experiments.There are two research purposes for Experiment 1.The first one is to investigate whether the "red win" effect existed in Rhythmic Gymnastics;and the second purpose is to examine the effect of red uniform on the judges’ visual search.A total of 20 expert and 17 novice referees participated in the experiment.The differences in visual search characteristics and scores between expert and novice referees when judging different uniform colors(red、blue and white)and videos of the same body movements were compared.The eye-tracking technology was adopted to measure eye movement.The results showed that when rating the movement in red uniform,the novice referees scored the novice judges scored significantly higher than expert referees.Novice referees rated the movements in red uniform significantly higher than in blue and white uniform.The eye movement data results showed that the elapse time of fixation on the torso of the novice referees was significantly earlier than expert referees.The fixation count for red and blue uniform of novice referees was larger than expert referees.The fixation count for red and blue uniform of all referees was significantly more than blue and white uniform.The total fixation duration of novice referees of red and blue uniform was significantly higher than expert referees,and the total fixation duration on the torso of red uniform of all referees was significantly higher than blue and white uniform.In the Experiment 2,the Event Related Potential(ERP)technique was used to compare the effects of different uniform colors on the performance of 19 expert referees and 17 novice referees.The results showed that novice referees had chosen the images of red uniform significantly more times than expert referees.Novice and expert referees chose the images of red uniform significantly more times than in the blue and white uniform.ERP results showed that expert referees had significantly higher N1 component peak and lower P2 component peak than novice referees when judging red and blue uniform movement,expert referees had significantly shorter N1 and P2 component latency than novice referees when judging red and blue uniform movement.Novice referees had significantly larger N1 and P2 component peaks and significantly shorter N1 and P2 component latencies than novice when judging red and blue uniform movement.Expert referees judged both red and white uniform movement with significantly larger P2 component peak and shorter latency than blue uniform.In the Experiment 3,the ERP component was used to compare the effects of different movement range and different uniform color on 19 expert referees and 17 novice referees.The results showed that novice referees made significantly more errors in evaluating the movement in all three colors uniform.Both groups of referees made significantly more errors in evaluating the movement in red uniform than blue and white uniform.ERP results showed that the N1 peak of expert referees was significantly larger than novice referees,and the latency was significantly shorter than novice referees when they judged the movement in red and white uniform.The peak of N1 component evoked by the movement in red and blue uniform judged by novice judges was significantly larger than that of white uniform,and the latency was significantly shorter.The peak of P2 component in novice group was significantly larger than that of expert group,and the latency of P2 was significantly longer.Compared with blue and white uniform,novice referees had a significantly larger P2 peak and shorter latency when they judged the movement in red uniform.Conclusions:(1)referees evaluated the movement in red uniform more favorably than those in blue or white uniform.Visual search behavior showed that the referees’ attention to red was directed earlier,the attention degree was greater,and the information extraction time was increased.The difference between high-level and lowlevel referee behavior used different visual search strategies.(2)When there was no difference in movement range,both groups of referees tended to give higher evaluation to red uniform,and novice referees gave higher evaluation to red uniform than experts.When the movement range is different,the two groups of referees tend to produce more error of red uniform,and the error rate of novice referees is higher.The different behaviors between expert and novice lies in the different attentional mechanisms of the two groups.The attentional mechanism from top to bottom was too much involved in the processing of experts,while the attentional mechanism from bottom to top was too much involved in the processing of novice.