GENERAL DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES OF OPEN SKILLS AND CLOSED SPORT ATHLETES. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES?

Introduction: Sport improves low-level general and specific perceptual-cognitive processes (1,2). However, the possibility of improving the high-order percept-cognitive skills such as decision-making is under debate. Our study aims to fill this gap testing the decision-making processes featuring open-skills sport athletes and closed-skills sport athletes in developmental age. Given the nature of the task involved, fluid intelligence(3) was monitored as a confounding factor. Methods: Participants: Thirty-five athletes (13 track and field athletes and 22 football players) high-level athletes, aged 11.03 土 1.33 y.o., were recruited. Tasks: A perceptual decision task with three levels of uncertainty (i.e., low, medium, and high) where participants had to score as many points as possible was used(4). Performance (LR) and decision confidence were evaluated. Specifically, the performance was evaluated through an index called Learning Rate, while implicit decision confidence was evaluated through the bet on their decision. Raven-CPM(3) assessed fluid intelligence. LR: No-difference in Learning Rate between the two groups in each level of uncertainty was found. Moreover, the factor intelligence was not significant. Confidence: Analysis revealed differences between the groups in the three levels of uncertainties. In particular, football players had higher confidence in their decision than athletic athletes in the three levels. Moreover, the athletic athletes did not show differences across the three conditions as the football players did. No effect of the confounding factor intelligence was found. Conclusion Both groups performed the task equally. However, some differences arise from the analysis of implicit confidence in which football players seemed to be able to better evaluate the environment compared to athletic athletes. In order to better understand this phenomenon, the number of the two groups should be increased and young non-athletes should be recruited. Bibliography: 1) Voss, M. W., Kramer, A. F., Basak, C., Prakash, R. S., & Roberts, B. (2010). Are expert athletes “expert” in the cognitive laboratory? A meta-analytic review of cognition and sport expertise. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24(6), 812–826. 2) Chaddock, L., Neider, M. B., Voss, M. W., Gaspar, J. G., & Kramer, A. F. (2011). Do athletes excel at everyday tasks?. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 43(10), 1920. 3) Raven, J. C. Coloured Progressive Matrices, Sets A, Ab, B. Dumfries: Grieve and Sons, 1947. 4) Larsen, T. & Coricelli, G. (2017). Transfer of confidence in a novel observational learning task. Society for NeuroEconomics Conference. 6- 8 October