Comparing highly trained handball players’ and non-athletes’ performance in a multi-object tracking task

Abstract

Highly trained team sports players possess highly developed visual attentional skills, compared with non-athletes. These athletes also have much better motor control than non-athletes. This study compared the performance of intensively trained handball players with non-athletes in a modified version of the multiple object tracking (MOT) task, in which participants were instructed to point at the moving targets with their fingers. We hypothesized that athletes will perform better in the MOT task than non-athletes, and that the increased visual attentional load in the MOT task will affect pointing movements to a smaller degree in athletes than in non-athletes. The results partially support our hypotheses. Highly trained handball players performed much better in the MOT task than non-athletes, which confirms that athletes have better visual attentional skills. Considering the influence of attentional load on motor performance during the MOT task, the results suggest that among athletes, this influence may be present, but limited. However, this result should be interpreted with caution.