Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 12, 2026
Vision Training Methods for Sports Concussion Mitigation and Management
Published on: May 5, 2015
A study on the correlation between visual-spatial working memory capacity and decision-making performance in 3V2
Yanan Zhao1,2, Peng Shi3
1School of Sports Training, Tianjin University of Sport, Tianjin, China.
Objective:
To explore the correlation between visual-spatial working memory capacity and its subcomponents (object working memory capacity, spatial working memory capacity) and 3V2 offensive tactical decision-making performance in soccer players.
Methods:
Sixty male soccer players with national second-class or higher athletic level were selected as participants. The change detection paradigm was used to measure the response time and accuracy of visual-spatial working memory capacity, object working memory capacity, and spatial working memory capacity. A sport specific situational test was applied to evaluate the response time and rationality of 3 V2 offensive tactical decision-making. Participants were divided into high-capacity and low-capacity groups by K-means clustering, and statistical analyses were performed using Mann-Whitney U test and partial Spearman correlation analysis.
Results:
The high visual-spatial working memory capacity group showed significantly shorter response time (Z = -3.944, p < 0.001) and significantly lower decision rationality (Z = -2.135, p = 0.033) in 3 V2 offensive tactical decision-making than the low-capacity group. Similar intergroup differences were observed in object and spatial working memory capacity. After controlling for confounding variables, the response times of visual-spatial, object and spatial working memory capacities were significantly positively correlated with the response time of 3 V2 offensive tactical decision-making (p < 0.01) and decision rationality (p < 0.05). However, no significant correlations were found between the accuracy of the three working memory types and decision-making performance (p>0.05).
Conclusion:
The response time of visual-spatial working memory and its subcomponents is a key indicator for predicting 3 V2 offensive tactical decision making performance in soccer players. This study verifies the speed-accuracy trade off effect in sports cognition.
