Measurement of reaction time in groups of young athletes in the conditions which require focused attention

Abstract

The notion of maintaining visual attention, with its synonyms; prolonged concentration, intensity, mental attitude, are used to determine a mental ability which refers to ‘a state of readiness to detect, recognise and react to unusually subtle changes in the surroundings which occur during a longer period of time’ [1]. According to Linhart [2], ‘concentration of active attention is understood as a period during which a subject is able to perceive conventional signals without errors which might be a result of distracting attention, in a way that is active, purposeful and continuous’ [2, p. 324]. It must be added that this state of active readiness to react has a latent form and refers to a tendency to focus attention at a high level, mostly on tasks requiring a high standard of performance. Therefore, it does not determine a general level of possibilities to accomplish a given task, but it undoubtedly has an impact on it. In experimental psychology, an ability to focus attention is perceived in two ways: – as a certain personality disposition, – as a certain feature of behaviour which depends on a situational context. For the purpose of examining human behaviours in the conditions which require focused attention, many researchers suggest using attentional tasks, also referred to as continuous performance tests that ought to be characterised by the following three conditions: – relatively long duration, – low probability that a signal will appear, – relatively shallow principle of information selection during an analysis of stimuli [3,4].