How specific is domain specificity: does it extend across playing position?

The current study sought to examine the scope of domain specificity within a sport expertise context through the examination of positional specificity effects in the sport of netball.

Skilled goalers, centre court and defenders along with less skilled (novice) participants were tested on a video-based decision making task.

Skilled and less skilled netballers completed a video-based decision making task, comprising scenarios from the three different positional areas in netball (goalers, centre court and defence). Participants completed the scenarios from the playing position they were most familiar with, followed by the remaining two positions in a counterbalanced order.

Analysis of the goaler and defence scenarios revealed that the skilled goalers and centre court players were significantly more accurate than the novice players, whilst the skilled defenders did not differ to the other three groups (skilled goalers, skilled centre court and novice). For the centre court scenarios the skilled centre court players and defenders were significantly more accurate than the novice players, whilst the skilled goalers did not differ to any of the groups.

Limited evidence was shown to support the theory that decision making is specific to the position being played with the goalers and the centre court players most accurate on the attack and centre court scenarios respectively.