Do athletes excel at everyday tasks?

Laura Chaddock; Mark B Neider; Michelle W Voss; John G Gaspar; Arthur F Kramer

doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e318218ca74

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Journal article

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Peer reviewed

Do athletes excel at everyday tasks?

Laura Chaddock, Mark B Neider, Michelle W Voss, John G Gaspar and Arthur F Kramer

Medicine and science in sports and exercise, Vol.43(10), pp.1920-1926

10/2011

DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e318218ca74

PMCID: PMC3953501

PMID: 21407125

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Abstract

Cognitive enhancements are associated with sport training. We extended the sport-cognition literature by using a realistic street crossing task to examine the multitasking and processing speed abilities of collegiate athletes and nonathletes. Pedestrians navigated trafficked roads by walking on a treadmill in a virtual world, a challenge that requires the quick and simultaneous processing of multiple streams of information. Athletes had higher street crossing success rates than nonathletes, as reflected by fewer collisions with moving vehicles. Athletes also showed faster processing speed on a computer-based test of simple reaction time, and shorter reaction times were associated with higher street crossing success rates. The results suggest that participation in athletics relates to superior street crossing multitasking abilities and that athlete and nonathlete differences in processing speed may underlie this difference. We suggest that cognitive skills trained in sport may transfer to performance on everyday fast-paced multitasking abilities.

Young Adult

Athletes - psychology

Humans

Female

Male

Reaction Time

Task Performance and Analysis

Accidents, Traffic - prevention & control

Details

Title: Subtitle: Do athletes excel at everyday tasks?
Creators: Laura Chaddock - Department of Psychology, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 60801, USA. lchaddo2@illinois.edu
Mark B Neider
Michelle W Voss
John G Gaspar
Arthur F Kramer
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Medicine and science in sports and exercise, Vol.43(10), pp.1920-1926
DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e318218ca74
PMID: 21407125
PMCID: PMC3953501
NLM abbreviation: Med Sci Sports Exerc
ISSN: 0195-9131
eISSN: 1530-0315
Publisher: United States
Grant note: R01 HD069381 / NICHD NIH HHS
Language: English
Date published: 10/2011
Academic Unit: Iowa Technology Institute; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Driving Safety Research Institute
Record Identifier: 9984002467102771

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