Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: doi:10.22028/D291-35898
Title: Tennis expertise reduces costs in cognition but not in motor skills in a cognitive-motor dual-task condition
Author(s): Amico, Gianluca
Schaefer, Sabine
Language: English
Title: Acta Psychologica
Volume: 223
Publisher/Platform: Elsevier
Year of Publication: 2022
Free key words: Dual-tasking
Expertise
Cognition
Motor skill
DDC notations: 796 Sports
Publikation type: Journal Article
Abstract: Dual-process theories predict performance reductions under dual-task situations (= situations where two tasks have to be processed and executed simultaneously), because limited cognitive resources have to be shared between concurrent tasks. Increases in expertise should reduce the attentional resources needed to perform a motor task, leading to reduced dual-task costs. The current studies investigated whether expert tennis players (performance ratings of 1 to 14 in the German system) show smaller costs compared to intermediate players (performance ratings of 15 to 23). Two studies assessed single- and dual-task performance in a within-subject design in the same tennis task, returning balls into a target field. Two different cognitive tasks were used, a 3-back working memory task in study 1, and a vocabulary-learning task (episodic memory) in study 2. As predicted, performance in both cognitive tasks was reduced during dual-tasking, while the accuracy of tennis returns remained stable under cognitive challenge. These findings indicate that skilled tennis players show a task-prioritization strategy in favor of the tennis task in a dual-task situation. In study 1, intermediate players showed higher overall dual-task costs than experts, but the group differences in dual-task costs did not reach significance in study 2. This may have been due to less pronounced expertise-differences between the groups in study 2. The findings replicate and extend previous expertise studies in sports to the domain of tennis. We argue that an athlete's ability to keep up cognitive and motor performances in challenging dual-task situations may be a valid indicator of skill level.
DOI of the first publication: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103503
Link to this record: urn:nbn:de:bsz:291--ds-358982
hdl:20.500.11880/32719
http://dx.doi.org/10.22028/D291-35898
ISSN: 0001-6918
Date of registration: 4-Apr-2022
Faculty: HW - Fakultät für Empirische Humanwissenschaften und Wirtschaftswissenschaft
Department: HW - Sportwissenschaft
Professorship: HW - Prof. Dr. Sabine Schäfer
Collections:SciDok - Der Wissenschaftsserver der Universität des Saarlandes

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