# Gaze Behavior and Positioning of Referee Teams during Three-Point Shots in Basketball
## 1 Introduction  
In recent years, a number of studies have explored the process of decision-making by different actors in various sports. The role of these actors becomes especially important in fast-paced team games, such as basketball, football, or handball, where not only teammates but also opponents need to be observed simultaneously, often in high-stress and time-sensitive circumstances. These challenges apply to athletes as well as referees, who areexpected to perceive different game situations accurately and make decisions in high-pressure situations [1; 2; 3].  
The existing literature presents both efficient visual search strategies and optimally directed visual attention as important determinants of anticipation and decision-making performances in complex sports [4]. These cognitive abilities are not only relevant to players of various team sports but also to referees. In most game situations, the referees have to make their decisions based primarily on visual stimuli [5; 6; 7]. Referees are required, at all times, to observe the field markings, the ball, and the players actively involved, as well as the players who are not involved in any given game situation. Depending on their position and the position of the ball, the referees have continuously changing areas of responsibility. Moreover, they are expected to be able to anticipate game situations and procedures as best as possible in order to optimally adapt their gaze behavior. By means of a multitude of--primarily visually--perceived information, they should then, ideally, be able to correctly evaluate game situations and take appropriate decisions [8]. Simultaneously, they need to be able to communicate with their colleagues on overlapping areas of responsibility and/or disagreements. Therefore, optimum gaze behavior is of great significance for the overall performance of referees.  
Gaze behavior and associated gaze strategies of referees have, so far, received insufficient attention in the literature. Primarily, analysis into the gaze behavior of multiple referees who have to work together in several games, has remained nearly obscure. Until now, only one case study [9] about two amateur-level handball referees has looked at gaze behavior and the coordination of gaze strategies of multiple sportspeople simultaneously. It was found that both the referees mostly fixated on the game actions with the ball (75%), while simultaneously neglecting actions without the ball. This current study evaluates the expert basketball referees' gaze behavior and their compliance to their primary area of responsibility. This investigative approach extends previous research by exploring the coordinated gaze behavior of three sportspeople (referees--\"Three-Person Officiating System\"; [10]), simultaneously, in specific basketball game situations (three-point shots). This approach is of particular interest, not only from a sport's practical point of view, but also from a scientific perspective, especially related to work in other areas of research on visual search behavior of more than one observer [11]. Moreover, the level of refereeing expertise of the participants in the current study is significantly higher than in the study by [PERSON] et al. [9]. Furthermore, while these authors [9] observed gaze patterns that seemed rather uncoordinated (i.e., gaze was often directed at the same areas of interest over and over again, neglecting other aspects of game actions which were away from the ball), it remains questionable whether the same patterns of gaze behavior can be found in a group of observers/referees with more experience.