The effect of arousal on decision making and eye movements in professional volleyball players

Arousal is one of the psychological factors affecting athletes' performance. Without reaching the optimal level of arousal, people's performance will not be optimal. The aim of the current semi experimental study was to investigate the effect of arousal caused by spectators on process and outcome of volleyball service decision making. The population of the present study included volleyball players of Iranian youth volleyball national team. A number of 15 players (Mean age=18.00 ± 1.00 years) participated in this research. The task of current study was performance of volleyball service decision making under arousal conditions caused by spectators. Participants performed 25 decision making situations in baseline and spectators arousal conditions. The visual saccade and fixation data recorded by eye tracker system simultaneously with decision making test performance. Data analyzed with paired-samples t-test. The result indicated that arousal caused by spectators affected the process and outcome of decision making. Although the decision-making speed of the players increased under the circumstances of the arousal, their decision-making accuracy decreased. Given this results, coaches need to provide good training tips in training to improve the decisions made by players. In addition to physical exercise, mental training and decision-making should also be done.