Table 3. Results of the included studies.
Load Study Description p d r
A Ahmed et al. (2017) 1st half vs. 2nd half:
91.1 ± 14.9% vs 73.3 ± 17.4% correct decisions
1.7 ± 5.3% vs. 8.8% contentious decisions
7.2 ± 14.4% vs. 17.9 ± 17.1% incorrect decisions
24.8 ± 18.4% vs. 75.2 ± 18.4% missed fouls
0.007
0.068
0.041
0.002
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
Catteeuw et al. (2010) Uniform distribution of correct and incorrect decisions over six 15-minutes
periods
0.91 NR NR
Emmonds et al. (2015) Moderate increase of accuracy from minutes 40-50 to 50-60
Moderate decrease of accuracy in the last 10 minutes of the game
No difference in decision-making accuracy in 10-min periods
NR
NR
0.557
0.7
0.86
NR
NR
NR
NR
Gomez-Carmona and Pino Ortega (2016) 69% mistakes in 1st half vs. 31% in 2nd half NR NR NR
Larkin et al. (2014) Improvement of decision-making performance from quarter two to quarter four
Improvement of decision-making performance from quarter three to quarter four
0.002
0.001
NR
NR
NR
NR
Mallo (2012) R: no uniform distribution of errors for six 15-min periods. Higher error
percentage in last 15-min: 1st 15-min= 7%| 2nd 15-min= 9%| 3rd 15-min= 12%| 4th 15 min= 17%| 5th 15-min= 9%| 6th 15-min= 23%
AR: no uniform distribution of errors for six 15-min periods. Higher error percentage in last 15- min: 1st 15-min= 6%| 2nd 15-min= 10%| 3rd 15-min= 10%| 4th 15 min= 19%| 5th 15-min= 25%| 6th 15-min= 21%
0.013
0.002
NR
NR
NR
NR
Mascarenhas et al. (2009) Less accurate in the first 15-min in each half, but not statistically significant: 1st 15-min= 51%| 2nd 15-min= 69%| 3rd 15-min= 70% NR NR NR
Samuel et al. (2019) Lower accuracy in the second quarter compared to the third quarter
Lower accuracy in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter
No difference between first and second section (both lasts 30 minutes)
NR
NR
0.21
0.91
0.66
NR
NR
NR
NR
B Catteeuw et al. (2010) The error rate was uniformly distributed over six 15-min periods regarding movement speed of AR 0.24 NR NR
Elsworthy et al. (2014) No relationship between correct and incorrect decisions at instantaneous
velocity at the time of the decision
Lower running speed at incorrect decisions over the prior 5 seconds compared to correct decisions
< 0.05
0.018
NR
NR
NR
NR
Emmonds et al. (2015) No relationship between the referees’ velocity and decision-making accuracy NR NR 0.36
Gomez-Carmona and Pino Ortega (2016) Most errors at slow velocity of the R (35.2%): >18 km/h ~ 4% | 13-18 km/h ~ 8% | 7.2-13 km/h ~ 19% | 3.6-7.2 km/h ~ 29% NR NR NR
Mascarenhas et al. (2009) No relationship between referees velocity and decision-making accuracy 0.9 0.02 NR
Oudejans et al. (2005) R make more errors when running or sprinting (>8 km/h) compared when
jogging or walking
0.05 NR NR
C Paradis et al. (2015) No relationship between running time and decision-making performance > 0.05 NR NR
D Emmonds et al. (2015) No correlation between distance covered and decision-making accuracy NR NR -0.02
E Emmonds et al. (2015) No correlation between heart rate (mean) and decision-making accuracy NR NR 0.2
Gomez-Carmona and Pino Ortega (2016) Errors occur when heart rate above 75%, especially when HR is between 85-95% (67.7%) and over 95% (26.7%) NR NR NR
Mascarenhas et al. (2009) No difference between heart rate at correct (165.5 ± 12.5 bpm) and incorrect decisions (165.6 ± 13.3 bpm) 0.9 0.01 NR
F Larkin et al. (2014) No relationship between physical exertion (blood lactate) and decision-making performance for each quarter:
physical exertion 1 – quarter one
physical exertion 2 – quarter two
physical exertion 3 – quarter three
physical exertion 4 – quarter four
0.568
0.847
0.771
0.579
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
*Load: A = match period, B = velocity, C = running time, D = distance covered, E = heart rate, F = blood lactate.† Abbreviations: R = referees, AR = assistant referees, AFO = Australian field officials, NR= not reported, p = statistical significance, d = effect size, r = correlation, ± = standard deviation