Goal Side Selection of Penalty Shots in Soccer: A Laboratory Study and Analyses of Men’s World Cup Shoot-Outs

Penalty kicks in soccer provide a unique scenario in which to examine human choice behavior under competitive conditions. Here, we report two studies examining the tendency for soccer kickers to select the goal side with the largest area to the left or right of the goalkeeper’s veridical midline, when the goalkeeper stands marginally off-center. In Study I participants viewed realistic images of a soccer goal and goalkeeper with instructions to choose the left or right side of the goalmouth to best score a goal. We systematically displaced the goalkeeper’s position along the goal line; and, to simulate changes in the kicker’s viewing position, we systematically displaced the lateral position of the goalmouth in each image. While, overall, participants tended to choose the left over the right goal side, this preference was modulated by the goalkeeper’s position relative to the center of the goal and jointly on the lateral position of the goalmouth relative to the participants’ body midline. In Study II we analyzed 100 penalty shots from men’s world cup shoot-outs between the years 1982 to 2018. Again, we found a small tendency for kickers to aim the ball to the left goal side, but with barely any modulating effect of changes in the goalkeeper’s position and no effect of changes in the kicker’s position. In contrast to earlier claims that a goalkeeper may benefit by standing marginally to the left or right of the center of the goal to influence the direction of the kicker’s shot, our findings suggest that this is probably not a good strategy in elite football competitions.

Visually Induced Roll Circular Vection: Do Effects of Stimulation Velocity Differ for Supine and Upright Participants?

Visually induced circular vection (CV) has been the subject of a wide range of functional brain and behavioral research. Participants in MRI or PET studies on CV were mostly in a supine viewing position, while participants in behavioral studies on CV were mostly in an upright viewing position. This study examines the effects of viewing positions (upright and supine) on roll CV reported by 16 participants while watching random dots (92 × 60 degrees field-of-view) rotating at different angular velocities (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 deg/s) for 30 s. Viewing positions affected roll CV durations differently depending on the stimulation velocities. At slower velocities (2, 4, and 8 deg/s), participants exhibited significantly longer roll CV sensations when they were sitting in an upright position as opposed to lying in a supine position. The onset of roll CV was also significantly earlier with participants in an upright position despite similar roll CV intensities in both viewing positions. Significant two-way interactions between effects of viewing positions and dot rotating velocities for some conditions were noted. Consistency between current findings and the hypothesis predicting a weaker roll CV in upright positions based upon perceived gravity by the otolith organs is discussed.

Effects of gas temperature gradient on accuracy of single-particle inductively coupled plasma (SP-ICP) measurements

Double-viewing-position single-particle inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (DVP-SP-ICP-AES) has been used to investigate the effects of temperature gradient in the ICP central channel on SP-ICP intensity. The correlation plot of...

Upper Palaeolithic Installation Art: Topography, Distortion, Animation and Participation in the Production and Experience of Cantabrian Cave Art

The physical nature of cave walls and its impact on Upper Palaeolithic image making and viewing has frequently been invoked in explanations about the function of cave art. The morphological features (convexities, concavities, cracks and ridges) are frequently incorporated into the representations of prey animals that dominate the art, and several studies have attempted to document the relationship between the cave wall and the art in a quantitative manner. One of the effects of such incorporation is that undulating walls will distort the appearance of images as viewers change their viewing position. Was this distortion deliberate or accidental? Until now, the phenomenon has not been investigated quantitatively. We address this here, analysing 54 Late Upper Palaeolithic animal images deriving from three Cantabrian caves, Covalanas, El Pendo and El Castillo. We introduce a novel use for photogrammetry and 3D modelling through documenting the morphology of these caves’ walls and establishing the specific relationship between the walls and the art created on them. Our observations suggest that Palaeolithic artists deliberately placed images on very specific topographies. The restricted nature of these choice decisions and the fact that the resulting distortions could have been avoided but were not suggest that the interaction between viewer, art and wall was integral to the way cave art functioned.