Research

Peripheral Vision Group

Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Christian Vater, the Peripheral Vision Group investigates visual perception and decision-making in sport and everyday contexts. In addition to empirical studies on factors that influence peripheral vision usage, they develop training methods to improve peripheral vision and recommendations for using peripheral vision in everyday life, for example to increase road safety.

Influence of time pressure on perception and decision-making behaviour in football

Peripheral vision enables football players to keep track of several opponents at the same time. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of distance to the direct opponent on perceptual strategies and decision-making in defense scenarios. Experienced players took on the perspective of a central defender in a virtual 3-on-3 counterattack situation and had to recognise when a winger was overrunning his defender.

The following video (in German) shows the procedure used during data recording:

The results show that higher time pressure leads to more gaze anchoring on the direct opponent so that the other opponents are perceived with peripheral vision. The gaze is anchored shortly before the decision is made. From the results, it can be deduced that time pressure influences how football players use central (foveal) and peripheral vision.

For the presentation of the study findings, we received a poster prize at the annual conference of the motor control section of the German Association for Sport Science (dvs) in Munich. The poster can be viewed here.

Publications

Vater, C., Pinchuk, S., & Vukojević, B. (2025, March 19-21). Soccer players use peripheral vision under time pressure [Poster session]. 18. Tagung der Sektion Sportmotorik der Deutschen Vereinigung für Sportwissenschaften, München.

Vater, C., Vukojevic, B., & Williams, A. M. (2025). Peripheral vision in sport. In G. Ziv & R. Lidor (Eds.), Gaze and visual perception in sport (pp. 23-33). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032708973-4

Vukojević, B., Pinchuk, S., & Vater, C. (2025). The closer, the harder? Investigating the use of peripheral vision in 3vs3 counter-attack VR situations in football [Abstract]. Current Issues in Sport Science, 10(2), Article 73. https://doi.org/10.36950/2025.2ciss073

Williams, A. M., DeCouto, B., Teoldo, I., & Vater, C. (2025). Gaze behavior and expert performance in sport. In G. Ziv & R. Lidor (Eds.), Gaze and visual perception in sport (pp. 59-76). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032708973-7

Christian Vater