Purpose. The present study aimed to examine the current methods employed to assess anticipation in soccer players as well as to elicit the main findings of recent studies. Methods. The study was carried out in systematic review form and its sample comprised nine scientific papers published in academic journals. Only the studies involving soccer players (professionals and amateurs, except goalkeepers) were included in this review. Results and conclusions. We observed that most of the studies employed video footage obtained from soccer matches, which are occluded at a given point for study participants to quickly and precisely elicit the positions of opponents, teammates and the ball as well as anticipate actions (dribbling, shooting, passing) from surrounding players (teammates and opponents). In addition, the studies compared the performance of players from both high and low competitive levels in anticipation tasks.
The main aim of our investigation is a cognitive interdependence to metacognitive self. Metacognitive self construct as a new one is considered. Three studies are presented: first two as evidence for monitoring effect of metacognitive self, and the last one – as cross-cultural study. The latter is devoted to the role of metacognitive self in affect regulation. Studies showed that metacognitive self may be responsible for persistence in cognitive load conditions, and metacognitive self may serve as a protector against certain symptoms of depression.
A literature review was conducted to investigate the effect of physical exercise and physical training on cognition and academic performance in children and adolescents. Nine randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials with 2,013 participants were identified by employing the following data sources: the Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials, Medline, Eric, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and ISI Web of Knowledge. Five studies indicated positive effects of physical exercise on attention, concentration, and working memory, and three studies reported positive effects of 14 to 64 week physical training on language and arithmetic skills. Thus, there is some evidence that physical exercise may facilitate cognitive functions related to learning and enhance academic performance.
Sleep deprivation affects numerous cognitive processes. Children populations have not been studied thoroughly, with regard to the effect of sleep deprivation on communication abilities. In this study, we investigate the pragmatic competence following acute sleep deprivation. Two eleven-year-old boys were evaluated on their pragmatic ability before and following sleep deprivation. The conversations were video-recorded, transcribed and analyzed using the CHAT conventions. The Pragmatic Evaluation Protocol Revised (PREP-R) was administered for the investigation of pragmatic ability. Both children demonstrated a significantly lower performance following acute sleep deprivation. Their specific pragmatic ability and grammatically-based pragmatic ability were impaired. The subjects were unable to use lexical, morphological and syntactic cohesion, and encountered difficulties in the interaction and the managing of pauses. Acute sleep deprivation affects pragmatic competence, mainly due to difficulties in alertness, attention, working memory, and executive dysfunction in general. Variability in the pragmatic ability of the two subjects implies that more studies, focused on the cognitive deficits after sleep deprivation can cast more light on the evaluation of pragmatic ability.
Left-handers have been persecuted by right-handers for millennia. This right bias is evident cross-culturally, linguistically (right is literally and figuratively ‘right’, with lefties being described as ‘gauche’, ‘sinister’ and ‘cack-handed’), and environmentally (e.g., equipment design, including power tools, ticket machines, and lecture-room desks). Despite this, the proportion of left-handers has remained constant at approximately 10% of the hominid population, implying that though there are costs associated with left-handedness (if there were not, the proportions of left- and right-handers would be 50:50), left handers must also enjoy fitness advantages that maintain the genes for left-handedness in the population. This paper reviews the costs and benefits of being left-handed, exploring research examining the effects of handedness on brain structure, cognitive function, and human behaviour. The research confirms a variety of left-hander advantages, including some cognitive superiorities, higher wages, and greater sporting and fighting prowess. On the other hand, left-handedness is also associated with significant fitness costs, including an increased risk of accidents, higher substance abuse susceptibility, and earlier death, in comparison with right-handers. In sum, left-handedness confers both costs and benefits, with the latter outweighing the former, maintaining the genes for left-handedness in the population.
Purpose. Psychological research indicates that, in contact sports, the results of sports competitions might be influenced by the color of an athlete's uniform (especially the color red). However, previous research has not yet experimentally verified whether this hypothesis might be a consequence of perceptual distortion caused by moving objects of a certain color, such as red. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of an object's color on the efficiency of performing simple tasks in a basic computer game. Methods. 225 participants aged between 16 and 30 years played nine different "arcade" games of skill, differed by the rules and colors used in the game, where the subjects were tested on their ability to hit, escape from, or outmaneuver certain objects of a certain color (either blue, red or black). The score achieved was then correlated to what effect the color of the objects had on a subject's visual perception. Results. It was found that the study participants were able to hit red moving objects significantly better than blue and black objects. No difference was found in the ability to avoid elements, in all three colors. Conclusions. The obtained result finds that in some games of skill, the color of the used stimulus might significantly influence perceptual efficiency and, therefore, the results and performance of individuals. The results of our study suggest that future research is needed in investigating the meaning and role of colors, as this may be very important, in various sports. The colors used in sports equipment, uniforms, environment, etc., should be empirically verified if they can influence the results of sports competitions.
This study used reaction time (RT) and event-related potential (ERP) analysis in an emotion-cognition Eriksen-Flanker (ECEF) task to investigate behavioral and neural abnormalities in individuals with public speaking anxiety (PSA). Although 25 per cent of people worldwide suffer from PSA, there is currently a lack of standardized assessment or biomarkers to detect emotion-cognition abnormalities in individuals with PSA. RT and ERP were compared between 12 subjects with high (H) PSA and 12 subjects with low (L) PSA in the ECEF experiment. EEG was recorded with the 14-channel Emotiv EPOC+. RT data showed a significant Flanker Effect across groups in the neutral and emotional (PSA-related) conditions, with increased Flanker effect in the HPSA group. On average, LPSA subjects were faster than the HPSA subjects in the ECEF task. HPSA subjects showed aberrant ERP responses in two ways. Firstly in the reversed N200 conflict effect with increased frontocentral amplitude in the incongruent compared to the congruent condition. Secondly, in the absence of the P200 frontocentral emotional modulation found in LPSA subjects. In the HPSA group, decreased P200 amplitude is significantly related to impaired behavioral performance in the neutral congruent condition. RT and ERP are useful in modern medicine because they successfully unveiled the biomarkers of abnormalities during the interaction of emotion and cognition. Impaired conflict processing in PSA-related condi- tions was found at the N200 and P200 windows in HPSA individuals.
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