Brinkbäumer Mark, Kupper Christian, Reichert Lukas, Zentgraf Karen
Department of Movement and Exercise Science, Institute for Sport Sciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2024 Jul 15;15:1357312. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1357312. eCollection 2024.
Ice hockey is a high pace sports game that requires players to integrate multiple skills. Players face perceptive, cognitive, and motor tasks concurrently; hence, players are regularly exposed to dual- or multi-task demands. Dual-tasking has been shown to lead to decreased performance in one or both performed tasks. The degree of performance reductions might be modulated by the exhaustion of cognitive resources. Literature on dual-task paradigms that combine sport-relevant elements is scarce. Therefore, a novel paradigm combining cyclical speed of the lower extremities and concurrent visuo-verbal speed reading was tested and validated. Additionally, to understand the nature of dual-task costs, the relationship between these costs and cognitive performance was assessed. We hypothesized occurrence of dual-task costs in all athletes without relationship to single task performance. Differences in dual-task cost were expected between open-skill and closed-skill sports, as well as differing expertise levels. Level of cognitive function was expected to explain some variance in dual-task cost.
A total of 322 elite athletes (120 ice hockey, 165 other team sports, 37 closed-skill sports) participated in this study. Each athlete performed a tapping task, a visuo-verbal speed-reading task, and both tasks simultaneously. All ice hockey athletes performed additional cognitive tests assessing processing speed, spatial working memory, sustained attention, two choice reaction time, and motor inhibition.
The results of paired-sample t-tests confirmed significant dual-task costs for all sport groups ( < 0.001). Single-task performance and dual-task costs correlated weakly in a positive direction. A one-way ANOVA revealed significantly greater costs in closed-skill sports athletes than in ice hockey and other sports athletes. No significant differences in dual-task costs were found between teams of differing expertise levels. Lastly, no significant regression model was found to predict dual-task costs from cognitive test performance.
Our study suggests that this novel dual-task paradigm was successful in inducing dual-task costs for all elite athletes. Since it distinguishes between closed-skill and open-skill sports athletes, it might be a valuable diagnostic tool for performance and for talent development of open-skill athletes. Dual-task costs could not be relevantly predicted via cognitive performance measures, questioning cognitive resource theories as an explanation for dual-task costs.
冰球是一项节奏很快的体育比赛，要求运动员综合运用多种技能。运动员同时面临感知、认知和运动任务；因此，运动员经常面临双重或多重任务需求。研究表明，同时执行两项任务会导致其中一项或两项任务的表现下降。表现下降的程度可能会受到认知资源耗尽的调节。关于结合与运动相关元素的双重任务范式的文献很少。因此，测试并验证了一种将下肢周期性速度与同时进行的视觉语言快速阅读相结合的新范式。此外，为了了解双重任务成本的本质，评估了这些成本与认知表现之间的关系。我们假设所有运动员都会出现双重任务成本，且与单任务表现无关。预计开放技能和封闭技能运动之间以及不同专业水平之间的双重任务成本会存在差异。预计认知功能水平可以解释双重任务成本的一些差异。
共有322名精英运动员（120名冰球运动员、165名其他团队运动运动员、37名封闭技能运动运动员）参与了本研究。每位运动员都执行了一项敲击任务、一项视觉语言快速阅读任务，以及两项任务同时进行。所有冰球运动员还进行了额外的认知测试，评估处理速度、空间工作记忆、持续注意力、二选一反应时间和运动抑制。
配对样本t检验的结果证实，所有运动组都存在显著的双重任务成本（<0.001）。单任务表现与双重任务成本呈弱正相关。单因素方差分析显示，封闭技能运动运动员的成本显著高于冰球和其他运动项目的运动员。不同专业水平的团队之间在双重任务成本上没有显著差异。最后，没有发现从认知测试表现预测双重任务成本的显著回归模型。
我们的研究表明，这种新的双重任务范式成功地在所有精英运动员中诱导出了双重任务成本。由于它区分了封闭技能和开放技能运动的运动员，它可能是一种有价值的诊断工具，用于评估开放技能运动员的表现和人才培养。双重任务成本无法通过认知表现测量进行相关预测，这对将认知资源理论作为双重任务成本的解释提出了质疑。
