Shimi Andria, Kyriacou Theofanis, Avraamides Marios N
Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
CYENS Centre of Excellence, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Front Sports Act Living. 2025 Aug 22;7:1623558. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1623558. eCollection 2025.
In this study, we investigated the involvement of different aspects of attention in a light training task requiring fast physical responses to targets.
Fifty adult participants carried out drills in SpeedPad, a Virtual Reality (VR) adaptation of the Batak Pro and the Fitlight Trainer systems commonly used by athletes of various sports. Participants also carried out three established cognitive tasks on a desktop computer: the Posner cueing task, a visual conjunction search task, and a Motion Object Tracking (MOT) task.
Results revealed significant correlations among performance on all four tasks, aligning with theoretical expectations. Regression analyses conducted for four array sizes in SpeedPad with 9, 15, 19, and 24 possible target locations, showed that the speed of attentional orienting to a target, measured with the Posner cueing task, was a significant predictor of SpeedPad performance across all array sizes. Accuracy in the MOT, which required splitting attention across multiple target locations and tracking moving targets, significantly predicted SpeedPad performance for array sizes 15, 19, and 24. However, the speed of visual search did not account for additional variance in SpeedPad performance beyond that explained by the other variables.
Overall, our results indicate that light training tasks like the SpeedPad rely on the efficient deployment of cognitive processes such as the spatial orienting of attention and the ability to split attention across multiple locations in the environment. These findings highlight the importance of cognitive skills for reacting fast to objects, suggesting that VR light training tasks could serve as valuable tools for exercising both cognitive and physiological processes in athletes across various sports.
在本研究中，我们调查了在一项需要对目标做出快速身体反应的轻度训练任务中，注意力不同方面的参与情况。
五十名成年参与者在SpeedPad中进行训练，SpeedPad是对Batak Pro和Fitlight Trainer系统的虚拟现实（VR）改编版，各种运动项目的运动员常用这两个系统。参与者还在台式计算机上进行了三项既定的认知任务：波斯纳线索任务、视觉联合搜索任务和运动物体跟踪（MOT）任务。
结果显示所有四项任务的表现之间存在显著相关性，符合理论预期。针对SpeedPad中9、15、19和24个可能目标位置的四种阵列大小进行的回归分析表明，用波斯纳线索任务测量的对目标的注意力定向速度，是所有阵列大小下SpeedPad表现的显著预测指标。MOT任务中的准确性，即需要在多个目标位置分配注意力并跟踪移动目标，显著预测了阵列大小为15、19和24时的SpeedPad表现。然而，视觉搜索速度并未解释SpeedPad表现中超出其他变量所解释的额外方差。
总体而言，我们的结果表明，像SpeedPad这样的轻度训练任务依赖于认知过程的有效部署，如注意力的空间定向以及在环境中的多个位置分配注意力的能力。这些发现凸显了认知技能对于快速对物体做出反应的重要性，表明VR轻度训练任务可以作为锻炼各类运动项目运动员认知和生理过程的有价值工具。
