L’activité décisionnelle en phase de contre-attaque en Hockey sur glace

The aim of this study was to understand and describe the underlying processes of decision-making in a dynamic situation, i.e. one that was uncertain, gradual and subject to intense time pressure. Our work involved analysing ice hockey players’ activity in a natural situation of counter-attacking. Behavioural data was recorded from six high-level ice hockey players, supplemented by verbal data collected during self-confrontational interviews. Six counter-attacks were studied. The data were analysed in five stages: (1) generating counter-attack logs, (2) selecting and identifying the elementary units of meaning, (3) analysing the courses of action by dividing up the situations, (4) identifying situations and schemata, and (5) checking the validity of the analysis. An analysis of the data content identified ten schemata used by expert ice hockey players in situations with strict time constraints. These represent the underlying structures which link perceptive and cognitive elements and facilitate the recognition of situations during a counter-attack. The results of this study provide empirical support for the complexity of decision-making in dynamic situations and are discussed with regard to the literature on decision-making in natural situations in the field of sport and cognitive ergonomics