利用工作負荷容量探討優秀運動員的訊息處理能力

An Investigation of Information Processing Efficiency in Elite Athletes via Workload Capacity

過去研究普遍發現運動員有較快的反應時間，因此認為他們有較好的認知功能與訊息處理能力。然而，若僅以傳統的分析方法（例如：平均反應時間），在推論個體的訊息處理效率仍有其限制，如此也可能會影響心智科學知識於運動科學領域的學術與實務應用。為了進一步探討此議題，本研究利用知覺決策作業測量多管道訊息處理效率，藉以重新檢視優秀運動員的訊息處理能力與認知功能表現。本研究招募18至25歲大專足球聯賽公開一級的男性選手，與無規律運動習慣且在生理條件及年齡相仿的大學生參與本實驗，最後符合篩選條件與完成實驗的參與者為運動員27人以及控制組26人。本研究利用系統多因子技術，評估參與者在執行雙光點偵測作業時的工作負荷容量，藉此推論他們在處理多管道視覺訊息的效率表現。此外，我們也同步收錄腦電波資料以探討行為結果背後的神經機制。本研究主要發現，雖然運動員的整體反應時間較控制組快，但在工作負荷容量沒有優勢表現。在腦電波的結果顯示，雖然N1振幅沒有明顯的組間差異，但我們發現運動員的N1潛時明顯較控制組快。有鑒於上述的研究結果，本研究推論運動員在執行雙光點偵測作業時，雖然有較快的視覺偵測或動作處理速度，但這並不代表他們在累積決策訊息的速度與訊息處理效率也有此優勢。另一方面，從腦電波的結果顯示了運動員在早期注意力階段能較快處理視覺訊息，而這可能是解釋他們在視覺偵測作業的反應較快的內在機制。總結來說，本研究結合創新行為表現指標與事件相關電位重新檢視與推論運動員的訊息處理能力，期盼本研究的成果將可啟發未來研究者們，從不同的角度來了解認知功能在競技運動所扮演的角色。

Previous studies have demonstrated superior cognitive function and information processing efficiency in elite athletes. However, most researchers drew such conclusions only by means of evaluating mean reaction times (RTs), which cannot be used to directly infer information processing efficiency in athletes. This impedes research development and practical cognitive science applications in the field of sports science. Here, we investigated differences in information processing capacity between elite soccer players and non-athletes by comparing mean reaction time and workload capacity evaluated using Systems Factorial Technology (SFT) (Townsend & Nozawa, 1995). A total of 27 first division soccer players and 26 controls from the general student population took part in the experiment. All participants were matched for weight, height, and age. A double-dot redundant-target task was adopted to examine the effect of visuo-spatial attention between the two groups. Further, event-related potential (ERP) was employed to explore the neural mechanisms underlying the responses. The behavioral findings demonstrated that soccer players exhibited faster reaction time than the controls, while no significant between-groups differences in workload capacity were found. In terms of ERPs, the results revealed a significantly shorter N1 latency for the soccer players compared to the controls, while such an effect was not observed for N1 amplitude. According to these findings, athletes practicing strategic sports may have superior processing speed while performing a visuo-spatial detection task. However, such cognitive superiority might not be associated with information processing capacity in this case. On the other hand, greater processing speed for soccer players may be inferred from the ERP results, which may explain why they had faster visuo-motor responses when performing the double-dot detection task. To summarize, this is study re-examined the cognitive superiority of athletes using a novel approach (i.e., SFT) along with ERP, and it is expected that this work may inspire researchers to further understand the role of cognition in sports from different perspectives.