Amplifying perceptual demands: How changes in the colour vests affect youth players performance during medium-sided games

This study explored how manipulating the colour of training vests affects footballers’ individual and collective performance during a Gk+6vs6+Gk medium-sided game. A total of 21 under-17 years old players were involved in three experimental conditions in a random order for a total of four days: i) CONTROL, two teams using two different colour vests; ii) SAME, both teams wearing blue vests; iii) MIXED, all 6 players per team wore different colour vests. Players’ positional data was used to compute time-motion and tactical-related variables, while video analysis was used to collect technical variables. Further, these variables were synchronized with spatiotemporal data allowing to capture ball-related actions in a horizontal 2D plan. All variables were analysed from the offensive and defensive perspective. From the offensive perspective, players performed more and further shots to goal during the CONTROL than in SAME and MIXED (small effects) conditions, with a decreased distance to the nearest defender (small effects). While defending, results revealed lower distance to the nearest teammate (small effects) in the CONTROL than in the SAME and MIXED conditions, and higher team longitudinal synchronization (small effects). In addition, the CONTROL showed in general lower values of team width while defending than in the other 2 conditions. Overall, coaches may use the CONTROL condition to emphasize offensive performance and defensive behaviour over the longitudinal direction with increased physical demands. In turn, coaches may use the manipulation of players vests to emphasize defensive performance, as players seem to behave more cohesively under such scenarios.

Collective Intelligence Under a Volatile Task Environment: a Behavioral Experiment Using Social Networks and Computer Simulations

Collective intelligence in our highly-connected world is a topic of interdisciplinary interest. Previous research has demonstrated that social network structures can affect collective intelligence, but the potential network impact is unknown when the task environment is volatile (i.e., optimal behavioral options can change over time), a common situation in modern societies. Here, we report a laboratory experiment in which a total of 250 participants performed a “restless” two-armed bandit task either alone, or collectively in a centralized or decentralized network. Although both network conditions outperformed the solo condition, no sizable performance difference was detected between the centralized and decentralized networks. To understand the absence of network effects, we analyzed participants’ behavior parametrically using an individual choice model. We then conducted exhaustive agent-based simulations to examine how different choice strategies may underlie collective performance in centralized or decentralized networks under volatile or stationary task environments. We found that, compared to the stationary environment, the difference in network structure had a much weaker impact on collective performance under the volatile environment across broad parametric variations. These results suggest that structural impacts of networks on collective intelligence may be constrained by the degree of environmental volatility.

Singing and playing music through mobile applications: Smule, a new music experience

Mobile phones and the Internet combined have led to the creation of applications that allow their users to perform music using only their Smartphones. With the Smule applications that we analyze in this paper, people can sing karaoke together with other singers from all over the world, or play a tune with their fingertips tapping on a phone’s screen. Besides providing new entertainment activities, the Smule applications and their multiple options regarding audio and video editing can bring about new musical practices and musical artifacts. Smule users can sing duets remotely, without actually singing on the same time – a virtual collective performance. Singing karaoke becomes a solitary practice where togetherness is contrived but not achieved. Video recordings can be edited and shared on a built-in social network, thus being endorsed with a new function: to create bonds within a social network. Analyzing the discourses of Smule creators and developers, we also show that the applications do not achieve what they are promised to do, namely providing social and authentic practices.

Storytelling as a Tool for Vicarious Learning among Air Medical Transport Crews

Learning vicariously from the experiences of others at work, such as those working on different teams or projects, has long been recognized as a driver of collective performance in organizations. Yet as work becomes more ambiguous and less observable in knowledge-intensive organizations, previously identified vicarious learning strategies, including direct observation and formal knowledge transfer, become less feasible. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews with flight nurse crews in an air medical transport program, I inductively build a model of how storytelling can serve as a valuable tool for vicarious learning. I explore a multistage process of triggering, telling, and transforming stories as a means by which flight nurses convert the raw experience of other crews’ patient transports into prospective knowledge and expanded repertoires of responses for potential future challenges. Further, I highlight how this storytelling process is situated within the transport program’s broader structures and practices, which serve to enable flight nurses’ storytelling and to scale the lessons of their stories throughout the entire program. I discuss the implications of these insights for the study of storytelling as a learning tool in organizations, as well as for revamping the field’s understanding of vicarious learning in knowledge-intensive work settings.

Are the Player Selection Process and Performance Influenced by Relative Age Effect in Elite Women’s Handball?

The relative age effect (RAE) is a phenomenon present in team sports, but it does not influence each gender to the same extent. This study aimed to examine the RAE and its relation to performance in international women's handball competitions (2017/18 World Championships). The sample was composed of 1,096 female players distributed into three categories: youth or under 18 (n = 369); junior or under 20 (n = 328) and senior (n = 399). The teams were divided into four groups based on their final position (medalist, quarter-finalist, eight-finalist and bottom-eight teams). The birthdate distribution (trimesters and semesters) was analysed according to the competition category and the playing position. Differences between the expected and observed birthdate distribution were checked using the chi-square statistical test followed by the calculation of the odds ratio. The results revealed, by trimester, the presence of the RAE in the youth (x2(7) = 87.22; p < 0.001) and junior (x2 (7) = 33.12; p < 0.001) categories, with no impact on senior (p > 0.05). The effect size was relatively strong in the youth category (Vc = 0.48). By semester, the prevalence of the RAE was also found in the senior category (p < 0.05). According to the playing position, the RAE was especially detected in ‘goalkeeper’ (p < 0.01) and ‘centre-back’ (p < 0.05) positions, both in U-18 and U-20 categories. Surprisingly, this effect also appeared in the ‘back’ players in the senior category (p < 0.05). A prevalence of the RAE was identified in teams with a higher final position, but interestingly had a greater impact in the quarter-finalist teams (p < 0.001) than in the medalist teams (p < 0.01). The findings demonstrated that the RAE tends to decrease as the chronological age of players increases, demonstrating a strong presence according to collective performance in international women’s handball.

Dynamical system model predicts when social learners impair collective performance

A key question concerning collective decisions is whether a social system can settle on the best available option when some members learn from others instead of evaluating the options on their own. This question is challenging to study, and previous research has reached mixed conclusions, because collective decision outcomes depend on the insufficiently understood complex system of cognitive strategies, task properties, and social influence processes. This study integrates these complex interactions together in one general yet partially analytically tractable mathematical framework using a dynamical system model. In particular, it investigates how the interplay of the proportion of social learners, the relative merit of options, and the type of conformity response affect collective decision outcomes in a binary choice. The model predicts that, when the proportion of social learners exceeds a critical threshold, a bistable state appears in which the majority can end up favoring either the higher- or lower-merit option, depending on fluctuations and initial conditions. Below this threshold, the high-merit option is chosen by the majority. The critical threshold is determined by the conformity response function and the relative merits of the two options. The study helps reconcile disagreements about the effect of social learners on collective performance and proposes a mathematical framework that can be readily adapted to extensions investigating a wider variety of dynamics.

The influence of age group and match period on tactical performance in youth soccer: A full season study

Recently developed technological approaches using positional data and network analysis were adopted in this study to investigate the existence of drops in tactical performance from the first to the second half of official matches in two different age groups. Fifty outfield players from U-17 ( n = 25) and U-20 ( n = 25) youth academies were monitored over the 2020 competitive season. Players’ positional data were collected by GPS devices, and all matches were recorded for adoption of the Social Network Analysis approach. The individual and collective performances were monitored for both halves of the matches and compared between age group and match period using a mixed two-way ANOVA. Results indicated the absence of drops in collective tactical performance over the halves, although, on the individual scale, players reduced the spatial exploration from the first half to the second half. Older players presented higher density, LPWRatio and lower spatial exploration than younger players. Teams showed stable collective performance within the match, although drops in individual tactical performance were observed and were not age-dependent. Finally, older players tended to present a higher individual and collective performance.

A management instrument for team performance evaluation

Purpose: This article aims to develop an instrument to assess the collective performance of work teams' production. Associated with this, this evaluation instrument is applied to two production teams from the same company in Santa Catarina, to validate it. Methodology: The study is characterized as descriptive, quantitative and survey strategy. In order to develop the performance evaluation instrument, the literature review presented was taken as a starting point to guide the selection of the 10 indicators and 30 evaluation criteria enabling the elaboration f the questionnaire. Results: In general, it is possible to observe that the teams performed “good” in most of their indicators, and none of the indicators showed “poor”, “bad” or “regular” evaluations. It is suggested to develop some strategies to overcome the weakness shown by the communication indicator in both teams. Regarding the use of the instrument, it proved to be adequate to assess the collective performance, pointing out its strengths and weaknesses. Limitation: Singularity of application in a single company, not allowing generalizations to be made to other production teams. Originality: The proposal of an instrument to evaluate production teams ‘performance, indicating the team’s strengths and weaknesses.