Decision making is a common behavior that we all face in our daily life. Indeed, it is often required anticipating the progression of a situation, to make a choice and to evaluate or accept the consequences of those decisions.
This is particularly true in sport, where participants are required to be able to determine the best suitable choice depending on the context. In a situation where several different responses’ modes are possible, subjects are to collect sufficient contextual information and process the one that appear more relevant.
The aim of the tested hypotheses is to delimit the significance of the decision-making activity in the elaboration of the tactical choices from a theoretical point of you. We want to show that every decision making is the result of a cognitive effort in which we collect and process information. Each result may vary according to one’s ability. The processing of the information starts with subjective values and leads to a game of decision.
To this end, we compared the tactical choices of two groups from a given functional activity unit – « two players against two players » taken as an experimental situation – According to the rugby game experience, experts and novices were chosen. They were presented to multiple choices’ situations in which parameters were controlled. Tactical choices between three competitive option games (grouped, deployed and feet games) were studied by using experimental simulations, presented within a factorial design.
The examination of decision-making’s models did not provide adapted reference to the study of real tactical choices needed in sport situations.
The results concerning the relevance of the situation’s information show that experts’ tactical decisions were more flexible, more diversified and more coherent than the decisions made by novice players. However, a more detailed analysis reveals that the results are not totally dichotomous and that some novice’s choices follow the experts’ ones.
Key words : cognitive processes, decision-making, sport’s situation, tactical choices, information, expertise.
My name is Nadege DRACON. I’m 49 years old. I was born in Guadeloupe (west indies). I studied at Caen University (Normandy).
Since 2000, I’m a doctor in Psychology. I’ve always wanted to become research professor. But I occupied a post in the formation. Today, I would like to get my diploma of psychologist.
I’ve two children. I like rugby and I used to play in the French National Team.