title: Judging the judges' performance in rhythmic gymnastics.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Rhythmic gymnastics (RG) is an aesthetic event balancing between art and sport that also has a performance rating system (Code of Points) given by the International Gymnastics Federation. It is one of the sports in which competition results greatly depend on the judges' evaluation. In the current study, we explored the judges' performance in a five-gymnast ensemble routine.
  
  
  METHODS
  An expert-novice paradigm (10 international-level, 10 national-level, and 10 novice-level judges) was implemented under a fully simulated procedure of judgment in a five-gymnast ensemble routine of RG using two videos of routines performed by the Greek national team of RG. Simultaneous recordings of two-dimensional eye movements were taken during the judgment procedure to assess the percentage of time spent by each judge viewing the videos and fixation performance of each judge when an error in gymnast performance had occurred.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All judge level groups had very modest performance of error recognition on gymnasts' routines, and the best international judges reported approximately 40% of true errors. Novice judges spent significantly more time viewing the videos compared with national and international judges and spent significantly more time fixating detected errors than the other two groups. National judges were the only group that made efficient use of fixation to detect errors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The fact that international-level judges outperformed both other groups, while not relying on visual fixation to detect errors, suggests that these experienced judges probably make use of other cognitive strategies, increasing their overall error detection efficiency, which was, however, still far below optimum.
authors: 1Sports Medicine Department, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, GREECE; 2School of Applied Mathematics and Physical Sciences, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, GREECE; 3School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, GREECE; 4Gymnastics Department, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, GREECE; 5Department of Health Sciences, "Foro Italico" University of Rome, Rome, ITALY; 6Neurology Department, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Aeginition Hospital, Athens, GREECE; 7Laboratory of Sensorimotor Control, University Mental Health Research Institute, Athens, GREECE; and 8Psychiatry Department, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Aeginition Hospital, Athens, GREECE.
authors: Konstantinos
authors: K
authors: Flessas
authors: Dimitris
authors: D
authors: Mylonas
authors: Georgia
authors: G
authors: Panagiotaropoulou
authors: Despina
authors: D
authors: Tsopani
authors: Alexandrea
authors: A
authors: Korda
authors: Constantinos
authors: C
authors: Siettos
authors: Alessandra
authors: A
authors: Di Cagno
authors: Ioannis
authors: I
authors: Evdokimidis
authors: Nikolaos
authors: N
authors: Smyrnis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D006173:Gymnastics; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014743:Videotape Recording; D055815:Young Adult