TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fleddermann, Marie-Therese
A1  - Heppe, Holger
A1  - Zentgraf, Karen
T1  - Off-court generic perceptual-cognitive training in elite volleyball athletes : task-specific effects and levels of transfer
T2  - Frontiers in psychology
N2  - Background: The nature of perceptual-cognitive expertise in interactive sports has gained more and more scientific interest over the last two decades. Research to understand how this expertise can be developed has not been addressed profoundly yet. In approaches to study this with interventional designs, only few studies have scrutinized several levels of transfer such as to the field. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of a generic off-court perceptual-cognitive training in elite volleyball players on three different levels: task-specific, near-transfer, and far-transfer effects. Based on overlapping cognitive processes between training and testing, we hypothesized task-specific improvements as well as positive near- and far-transfer effects after a multiple-object tracking training intervention.
Methods: Twenty-two volleyball experts completed a 8-week three-dimensional (3D) multiple-object tracking (3D-MOT) training intervention. A control group (n = 21; volleyball experts also) participated in regular ball practice only. Before and after training, both groups performed tests on the 3D-MOT, four near-transfer tests in cognitive domains, and a far-transfer, lab-based, and volleyball-specific blocking test.
Results: The results of the 2 × 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) (group, time) showed significant interaction effects in the 3D-MOT task [F(1,40) = 93.10; p < 0.001; η2p = 0.70] and in two near-transfer tests [sustained attention: F(1,40) = 15.45; p < 0.001; η2p = 0.28; processing speed: F(1,40) = 12.15; p = 0.001; η2p = 0.23]. No significant interaction effects were found in the far-transfer volleyball test.
Conclusions: Our study suggests positive effects in task-specific and two near-transfer tests of a perceptual-cognitive intervention in elite volleyball athletes. This supports a partial overlap in cognitive processing between practice and tests with the result of positive near-transfer. However, there are no significant effects in far-transfer testing. Although these current results are promising, it is still unclear how far-transfer effects of a generic perceptual-cognitive training intervention can be assured.
KW  - training intervention
KW  - perceptual-cognitive expertise
KW  - multiple-object tracking
KW  - skill transfer
KW  - elite athletes
Y1  - 2019
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/50765
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-507651
SN  - 1664-1078
N1  - Copyright © 2019 Fleddermann, Heppe and Zentgraf. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
VL  - 10
IS  - Art. 1599
SP  - 1
EP  - 12
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -