David Mann

David Mann serves as an Associate Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, with additional appointments at the Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam (IBBA) and Amsterdam Movement Sciences - Sports (AMS). His research focuses on the intersection of vision science, sports performance, and cognitive processes, particularly examining how visual impairments affect athletic performance and everyday functioning.

Dr. Mann's research interests center on visual impairment in athletes, gaze behavior during sports performance, visual search patterns, and talent identification. His work spans multiple disciplines including sports psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and adaptive sports, with particular emphasis on how visual field and acuity limitations impact performance in basketball, football, and ball sports. His fingerprint analysis reveals strong expertise in Visual Impairment (100%), Athletes (91%), Visual Acuity (67%), Visual Field (53%), Visual Search (37%), and Gaze Behavior (33%).

His recent publications demonstrate a consistent focus on understanding the relationship between visual perception and sports performance. Key research trends include examining quiet eye duration in basketball shooting, the effects of vision loss on naturalistic search, the role of cognitive skills in youth football performance, dynamic anticipation in sports, and how people with vision impairment use gaze to hit balls. These studies employ methodologies including eye tracking, cognitive testing, and performance analysis across various sports contexts.

Dr. Mann currently serves as Director of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Classification Research and Development Centre for Athletes with Vision Impairment, demonstrating his leadership in this specialized field. He is also active in teaching as Course Coordinator for Talent and Talent Identification.

His research portfolio includes an active project titled "Developing sensory-cognitive predictors of everyday functioning with visual impairment" running from January 2023 to December 2025, which he conducts with colleague C. Olivers. Dr. Mann has supervised 6 PhD theses and teaches courses including Master Research Project, Talent and Talent Identification, and Talent Identification and Development.