Exploring the interplay between sport modality and cognitive function in open- and closed-skill athletes

The degree to which each sport modality relies on cognitive visual skills is hitherto under-researched. This study sought to further understanding of the relationship between sport modality and visual search ability, visual working memory, and reasoning. Ninety-five participants took part in the present study. In order to assess visual search ability, we employed the Visual Search Task. Visual working memory was assessed through the Corsi Block Tapping – Backwards Task. Reasoning abilities were assessed through the Cognitive Reflection Task. Results indicate that visual search skills appear to benefit to a higher extent from open-skill sports when compared to closed-skill sports. It is important to emphasize, however, that this result was associated with a small effect size. Moreover, the present findings indicate that closed-skill athletes do not differ in terms of visual search abilities, working memory, and reasoning abilities when compared to control individuals.     

Imagery use of athletes in individual and team sports that require open and closed skill

This study compared use of imagery in elite male and female athletes in open and closed and individual or team sports. A total of 151 elite Turkish athletes ages 15 to 29 years old (males' M age=20.7 yr., SD=3.3; females' M age=20.0 yr., SD=3.5) from open-team sports (n=66), open-individual sports (n=26), and closed-individual sports (n=59) completed the sport imagery questionnaire. A significant multivariate effect of sport type was found. Univariate analyses indicated that male and female athletes in team open-skill sports and individual closed-skill sports used more motivational general-mastery imagery than did athletes in individual open-skill sports.     

Executive functions in elite athletes – Comparing open-skill and closed-skill sports and considering the role of athletes' past involvement in both sport categories

Previous research documented differences in executive functions between elite athletes in different sports. It was argued that athletes in sport disciplines with higher cognitive demands (i.e., open-skill) show better executive functions than athletes in less cognitively challenging sport disciplines (i.e., closed-skill). In the current study, we aimed at detecting differences in executive functions between elite athletes in open-skill versus closed-skill sports and questioned the role of their total involvement in these sports until the age of 18 on executive functions.Seventy-five elite athletes (45 males and 30 females; M_age = 23.03 ± 4.41 years) from various sports were classified as open- or closed-skill athletes based on the sport they currently competed in. The athletes conducted a series of neuro-psychological tests measuring working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility (Design Fluency test, Trail Making test, Flanker task, and a 2-back task). Retrospective interviews assessed athletes' sport involvement in open-skill and closed-skill sports until the age of 18.MANCOVAs revealed that athletes in open-skill sports performed better on measures of working memory and cognitive flexibility. Generalized Linear Models displayed that elite athletes in closed-skill sports, with greater involvement in open-skill sports until the age of 18, performed better during working memory and cognitive flexibility tasks.The results indicate that extensive time spent in open- and closed-skill sports can affect executive functions in elite athletes. A high involvement in open-skill sports proved to be beneficial for executive functions, in particular for elite athletes in closed-skill sports. These findings suggest that experiences in cognitively demanding sports may cause benefits for the development of executive functions.     

On the Relation Between Time Perception and the Timing of Motor Action: Evidence for a Temporal Oscillator Controlling the Timing of Movement

Studies of time estimation have provided evidence that human time perception is determined by an internal clock containing a temporal oscillator and have also provided estimates of the frequency of this oscillator (Treisman, Faulkner, Naish, & Brogan, 1992; Treisman & Brogan, 1992). These estimates were based on the observation that when the intervals to be estimated are accompanied by auditory clicks that recur at certain critical rates, perturbations in time estimation occur. To test the hypothesis that the mechanisms that underlie the perception of time and those that control the timing of motor performance are similar, analogous experiments were performed on motor timing, with the object of seeing whether evidence for a clock would be obtained and if so whether its properties resemble those of the time perception clock. The prediction was made that perturbations in motor timing would be seen at the same or similar critical auditory click rates. The experiments examined choice reaction time and typing. The results support the hypothesis that a temporal oscillator paces motor performance and that this oscillator is similar to the oscillator underlying time perception. They also provide an estimate of the characteristic frequency of the oscillator.     

The effect of Parkinson's disease on time estimation as a function of stimulus duration range and modality

The present research sought to investigate the role of the basal ganglia in timing of sub- and supra-second intervals via an examination of the ability of people with Parkinson's disease (PD) to make temporal judgments in two ranges, 100-500 ms, and 1-5 s. Eighteen non-demented medicated patients with PD were compared with 14 matched controls on a duration-bisection task in which participants were required to discriminate auditory and visual signal durations within each time range. Results showed that patients with PD exhibited more variable duration judgments across both signal modality and duration range than controls, although closer analyses confirmed a timing deficit in the longer duration range only. The findings presented here suggest the bisection procedure may be a useful tool in identifying timing impairments in PD and, more generally, reaffirm the hypothesised role of the basal ganglia in temporal perception at the level of the attentionally mediated internal clock as well as memory retrieval and/or decision-making processes.     

Time perception in severe traumatic brain injury patients: A study comparing different methodologies

In this study, we investigated time perception in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Fifteen TBI patients and 15 matched healthy controls participated in the study. Participants were tested with durations above and below 1 s on three different temporal tasks that involved time reproduction, production, and discrimination tasks. Data variables analyzed included amount of errors, relative errors, and coefficient of variation. Both groups completed a neuropsychological battery that included measures of attention, working memory, and executive functions. Results revealed significant differences between groups on the time reproduction and discrimination tasks, whereas groups showed similar performance on the time production task. Correlation analyses showed involvement of attention, working memory and executive functions on the time reproduction and time discrimination tasks, but there was no involvement on the time production task. These findings suggest that TBI does not impact specific temporal function. Rather, impairments in attention, working memory and executive function abilities may explain lower temporal performance in people with TBI.     

Effects of interval duration on temporal processing in schizophrenia

INTRODUCTION: Temporal processing has received scant attention in the literature pertaining to cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia. Previous research suggests that patients with schizophrenia exhibit temporal perception deficits on both auditory and visual stimuli. The current study investigated the effects of interval manipulation to (1) replicate the original findings with a larger sample and an increased number of trials (2) assess the degree to which both patients and controls can differentiate temporal changes in a range of experimental interstimulus intervals, and (3) explore whether different interstimulus interval durations pose different levels of difficulty for the patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: Participants were asked to decide whether temporal intervals were shorter or longer than standard intervals on a computer-based auditory temporal perception task. The standard interval remained the same duration throughout the various tasks. The interstimulus interval separating the standard and experimental intervals varied in the range of 500, 1000, or 3000 ms. Data are presented for a sample of 16 patients with schizophrenia and 15 controls. RESULTS: Data suggest that patients with schizophrenia exhibit deficits in differentiating interval durations across all paradigms compared to their control-group peers on a range of auditory tasks (p<.001). CONCLUSIONS: These results are consistent with a general temporal deficit in schizophrenia. However, the roles of medication and localization are also addressed.     

Eye scanpaths during visual imagery reenact those of perception of the same visual scene

Eye movements during mental imagery are not epiphenomenal but assist the process of image generation. Commands to the eyes for each fixation are stored along with the visual representation and are used as spatial index in a motor‐based coordinate system for the proper arrangement of parts of an image. In two experiments, subjects viewed an irregular checkerboard or color pictures of fish and were subsequently asked to form mental images of these stimuli while keeping their eyes open. During the perceptual phase, a group of subjects was requested to maintain fixation onto the screen's center, whereas another group was free to inspect the stimuli. During the imagery phase, all of these subjects were free to move their eyes. A third group of subjects (in Experiment 2) was free to explore the pattern but was requested to maintain central fixation during imagery. For subjects free to explore the pattern, the percentage of time spent fixating a specific location during perception was highly correlated with the time spent on the same (empty) locations during imagery. The order of scanning of these locations during imagery was correlated to the original order during perception. The strength of relatedness of these scanpaths and the vividness of each image predicted performance accuracy. Subjects who fixed their gaze centrally during perception did the same spontaneously during imagery. Subjects free to explore during perception, but maintaining central fixation during imagery, showed decreased ability to recall the pattern. We conclude that the eye scanpaths during visual imagery reenact those of perception of the same visual scene and that they play a functional role.     

Asymmetries in visuomotor recalibration of time perception: Does causal binding distort the window of integration?

The recalibration of perceived visuomotor simultaneity to vision-lead and movement-lead temporal discrepancies is marked by an underlying causal asymmetry, if the movement (button press) is voluntary and self-initiated; a visual stimulus lagging the button press may be interpreted as causally linked sensory feedback (intentional or causal binding), a leading visual stimulus not. Here, we test whether this underlying causal asymmetry leads to directional asymmetries in the temporal recalibration of visuomotor time perception, using an interval estimation paradigm. Participants were trained to the presence of one of three temporal discrepancies between a motor action (button press) and a visual stimulus (flashed disk): 100 ms vision-lead, simultaneity, and 100 ms movement-lead. By adjusting a point on a visual scale, participants then estimated the interval between the visual stimulus and the button press over a range of discrepancies. Comparing the results across conditions, we found that temporal recalibration appears to be implemented nearly exclusively on the movement-lead side of the range of discrepancies by a uni-lateral lengthening or shortening of the window of temporal integration. Interestingly, this marked asymmetry does not lead to a significantly asymmetrical recalibration of the point of subjective simultaneity or to significant differences in discriminability. This seeming contradiction (symmetrical recalibration of subjective simultaneity and asymmetrical recalibration of interval estimation) poses a challenge to common models of temporal order perception that assume an underlying time measurement process with Gaussian noise. Using a two-criterion model of the window of temporal integration, we illustrate that a compressive bias around perceived simultaneity (temporal integration) even prior to perceptual decisions about temporal order would be very hard to detect given the sensitivity of the psychophysical procedures commonly used.     

Development and validation of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire for Children (MIQ-C)

The ability to perform movement imagery has been shown to influence motor performance and learning in sports and rehabilitation. Self-report questionnaires have been developed to assess movement imagery ability in adults, such as the Movement Imagery Questionnaire 3 (MIQ-3); however, there is a dearth of developmentally appropriate measures for use with children. To address this gap, the focus of this research was to develop an imagery ability questionnaire for children. This process involved adaptation of the MIQ-3 via: i) cognitive interviewing with twenty children, ii) validation with 206 children by examining its factor structure via multitrait-multi method confirmatory factor analysis, and iii) examination of test-retest reliability with 23 children. The findings of Study 1 led to changes to the wording of the questionnaire and modifications of the instructions to successfully adapt the MIQ-3 for children aged 7–12 years. The validation undertaken in Study 2 found that a correlated-traits correlated-uniqueness model provided the best fit to the data. Finally, test-retest reliabilities varied from fair (for external visual imagery) to substantial (for kinesthetic imagery). With respect to ease of imaging, no significant gender or age-group differences were noted. However, significant difference were found among the three imagery modalities (p < .001), with external visual imagery rated as easiest to image and kinesthetic imagery rated as the most difficult. Taken together, findings support the use of the MIQ-C for examining movement imagery ability with children.     

Dealing with Big Numbers: Representation and Understanding of Magnitudes Outside of Human Experience

Being able to estimate quantity is important in everyday life and for success in the STEM disciplines. However, people have difficulty reasoning about magnitudes outside of human perception (e.g., nanoseconds, geologic time). This study examines patterns of estimation errors across temporal and spatial magnitudes at large scales. We evaluated the effectiveness of hierarchical alignment in improving estimations, and transfer across dimensions. The activity was successful in increasing accuracy for temporal and spatial magnitudes, and learning transferred to the estimation of numeric magnitudes associated with events and objects. However, there were also a number of informative differences in performance on temporal, spatial, and numeric magnitude measures, suggesting that participants possess different categorical information for these scales. Educational implications are discussed.     

"Time flies in the presence of angry faces"… depending on the temporal task used!

A number of studies have reported that the perception of an arousing emotional stimulus, such as an angry face, results in temporal overestimations which are probably due to the speeding up of a clock-like system. The aim of the present study was to examine whether this emotional effect can be generalized to all temporal tasks irrespective of the underlying cognitive processes involved in each task. Five different temporal tasks involving the presentation of neutral and angry faces were therefore tested: bisection, generalization, verbal estimation, production and reproduction. Our results showed an overestimation of time for the angry compared to the neutral faces in the temporal bisection, verbal estimation and production tasks but not in the temporal generalization and reproduction tasks. Moreover, the results obtained in the temporal verbal estimation and production tasks suggest that this temporal overestimation of the angry faces was associated with relatively more accurate estimates. The involvement of both arousal and attention mechanisms in the effect of emotional facial expressions on time perception is discussed in the light of the differences in the impact of the same emotional stimulus as a function of the temporal task considered.     

Stop using time reproduction tasks in a comparative perspective without further analyses of the role of the motor response: The example of children

The temporal reproduction task is often used to investigate inter-individual differences in the ability to perceive time without any further analyses of the contribution of motor responses to temporal performance. The present study examined the role of motor responses in the reproduction of a 2.5 s and a 4.5 s signal duration in children and adults, with the former producing longer motor responses. The results showed that the 2.5 s duration was overestimated, especially by the younger children, whereas the 4.5 s duration was underestimated in all age groups. Further analyses indicated that the developmental differences related to motor response time explained the age-related difference in temporal reproduction for the shorter duration but not for the longer duration. The modelling of our data suggests that, for the shorter signal duration, the children initiated their responses at the same time as the adults, but that they reproduced longer durations because their motor response took more time to complete. In contrast, for the 4.5 s duration, the children initiated their responses earlier than the adults. However, they reproduced duration values close to the target time because their motor responses took longer. In addition, whatever the duration value to be reproduced, the representation of the sample duration was more variable in the younger children.     

视觉表象眼动的变化：知识还是技能表征的差异？

以表象看到一个运动员完成三级跳远项目为实验任务,对表象任务的信息通达水平、眼动注视点的活动位置和被试对三级跳远项目的知识水平和技能水平进行系统的操纵,通过2个实验探讨了视觉表象眼动的变化是基于知识学习表征差异还是技能训练表征差异的问题。实验1以没有三级跳远运动专业技能知识且对该运动的认知水平也较低的大学生为被试,结果表明,在完成高信息通达水平的表象任务时,注视点需要较短的持续时间,但眼跳距离会增大,眼跳频率会变低;实验2对表象任务的知识学习表征水平和技能训练表征水平进行操纵,分别以对实验任务进行过知识学习和专业技能训练的人为被试,结果表明,随着被试知识习得水平和技能水平表征能力的提高,不同表象任务信息通达水平间的眼动差异将消失,但知识学习和技能表征的差异在平均眼跳时间上有差异,技能训练型的被试其平均眼跳时间要短于知识学习型被试,达到临界水平显著,注视点平均持续时间和平均眼跳距离等均没有差异。     

Expert athletes activate somatosensory and motor planning regions of the brain when passively listening to familiar sports sounds

The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined the neural response to familiar and unfamiliar, sport and non-sport environmental sounds in expert and novice athletes. Results revealed differential neural responses dependent on sports expertise. Experts had greater neural activation than novices in focal sensorimotor areas such as the supplementary motor area, and pre- and postcentral gyri. Novices showed greater activation than experts in widespread areas involved in perception (i.e. supramarginal, middle occipital, and calcarine gyri; precuneus; inferior and superior parietal lobules), and motor planning and processing (i.e. inferior frontal, middle frontal, and middle temporal gyri). These between-group neural differences also appeared as an expertise effect within specific conditions. Experts showed greater activation than novices during the sport familiar condition in regions responsible for auditory and motor planning, including the inferior frontal gyrus and the parietal operculum. Novices only showed greater activation than experts in the supramarginal gyrus and pons during the non-sport unfamiliar condition, and in the middle frontal gyrus during the sport unfamiliar condition. These results are consistent with the view that expert athletes are attuned to only the most familiar, highly relevant sounds and tune out unfamiliar, irrelevant sounds. Furthermore, these findings that athletes show activation in areas known to be involved in action planning when passively listening to sounds suggests that auditory perception of action can lead to the re-instantiation of neural areas involved in producing these actions, especially if someone has expertise performing the actions.     

Generate,maintain, manipulate? Exploring the multidimensional nature of motor imagery

Motor imagery (MI), the mental rehearsal of a motor task, is thought to be a synergistic interaction between processes that allow for the generation, maintenance, and manipulation, of motor images. While our understanding of the multidimensional nature of MI stems from research examining various methods to assess MI ability, limited research has been conducted employing multiple assessments across participants to probe the underlying dimensions of MI. Accordingly, the current study sought to explore the multidimensional nature of MI using an exploratory approach that would allow for the dimensions of imagery to be examined and linked to each assessment measure. Specifically, participants (N = 81) underwent a battery of MI-assessments (including questionnaires, mental chronometry, a hand laterality judgment task, and a MI-based learning task), and data was analyzed via principal component analysis (PCA). Three components resulted, which were named based on which outcome measures loaded on to the component: generation, maintenance, and manipulation of motor images. We further discuss a fourth component, named ‘temporal sequencing’ of motor images, identified via the initial component solution. Concordant with previous research, we highlight the importance of employing multiple measures when assessing imagery ability prior to its use in training. Notably, this work allowed us to link assessments of MI to the different dimensions of MI, informing on the nature of MI.     

Active (not passive) spatial imagery primes temporal judgements

Previous research has shown that primes that induce particular spatial perspectives can influence temporal judgements. However, most studies have used priming stimuli that involve both spatial and motor language and imagery. Here we ask whether the motor content of these stimuli plays an important role in their ability to serve as effective primes. A total of 198 adult participants made temporal judgements after exposure to spatial primes involving varying levels of imagined effort. Spatial primes involving imagined motor actions, but not those involving equivalent passive motions through space, successfully primed decisions about time. This suggests that motor content, rather than spatial content alone, contributes to the priming effects that arise when people make temporal judgements after exposure to particular spatial perspectives.     

Examining the relationship between athletes' achievement goal orientation and ability to employ imagery

ObjectiveImagery ability may be cognitively regulated by motivational states, thus it is important to determine the relationship between goal orientations and imagery ability. Design/Method: Participants were 272 male and female athletes, representing nine sports. Goal orientations and cognitive and motivational imagery abilities were assessed via questionnaires. Task and ego goal orientations were examined via a two-step cluster analysis procedure, resulting in the identification of four goal orientation clusters. Separate multivariate analyses were conducted to assess differences in cognitive imagery ability and motivational imagery ability for the clusters, with gender and sport type entered as covariates. Results: For cognitive imagery ability, gender had a significant effect for athletes with low task/low ego orientation; female athletes rated their internal imagery perspective as clearer and more vivid. Regarding motivational imagery ability, when sport type was controlled for, cluster membership demonstrated a significant multivariate effect. Goal orientations have a relationship with motivational imagery ability but this same relationship was not evident with cognitive imagery ability. Athletes with high task/high ego or high task/low ego goal orientations scored significantly higher on their ability to feel emotions and their ease of generating motivational general-mastery images compared to athletes with low task/high ego or low task/low ego orientations. No differences between goal orientation clusters were found for motivational general-arousal imagery ability. Conclusion: Athletes who have a high task orientation are very motivated and have an easy time forming mastery images and a high ability to experience the emotion of these images.     

Chronometric comparisons of imagery to action: visualizing versus physically performing springboard dives

Motor imagery research emphasizes similarities between the mental imagery of an action and its physical execution. In this study, temporal differences between motor imagery and its physical performance as a function of performer expertise, skill complexity, and spatial ability were investigated. Physical execution times for springboard dives were compared with visualized execution times. Results indicate that physical and visualized performance times were not identical: Their relation is a function of dive complexity and diver expertise, but not their interaction. Relative to physical time, visualization time increased with increased complexity, suggesting the involvement of capacity-limited working memory. A nonmonotonic relation was found for expertise: Unlike experts or novices, visualization time for intermediates was significantly slower than physical time. These temporal differences are most consistent with schematic differences in skill representation. Intermediates may be relatively slowed by greater amounts of nonautomatized knowledge, as compared with the automatized knowledge of experts or the sparse knowledge of novices.     

Time perception in response to ashamed faces in children and adults

The present study investigated the effect of the perception of faces expressing shame on time perception in children aged 5 and 8 years, as well as in adults, as a function of their ability to recognize this emotional expression. The participants' ability to recognize the expression of shame among faces expressing different emotions was tested. They were then asked to perform a temporal bisection task involving both neutral and ashamed faces. The results showed that, from the age of 8 years, the participants who recognized the facial expressions of shame underestimated their presentation time compared to that of neutral faces. In contrast, no time distortion was observed in the children who did not recognize the ashamed faces or in those younger children who did recognize them. The results are discussed in terms of self-conscious emotions which develop to involve an attentional mechanism.