Beata Ruzbarska1, Pavol Cech1, Peter Bakalar1, Monika Vaskova1, Jaroslav Sucka1

1University of Presov, Faculty of Sports, Presov, Slovakia

Cognition and Sport: How Does Sport Participation Affect Cognitive Function?

Monten. J. Sports Sci. Med. 2025, 14(1), Ahead of Print | DOI: 10.26773/mjssm.250304

Abstract

Cognitive-executive functions are essential processes for daily activities, academic, occupational and sporting success, health and quality of life. One way to improve them is through regular participation in physical activities. The aim of the study is to assess the effect of sports training on cognitive-executive functions. A total of 328 boys (220 young soccer players and 108 boys without participation in sport training) aged 12.0–14.9 years performed tests to assess their cognitive-executive functions (Deary-Liewald task, Corsii block test, Trail Making test). Two Way ANOVA was used to evaluate the significance of differences in cognitive functions in terms of two factors - sport (sporting vs. non-sporting boys) and age (12, 13 and 14-year old boys) and their interaction (group*age). ANOVA showed a significant effect of sport (in favour of soccer players) and age (increasing performance due to age in the soccer players group, ambiguous results in the non-sporting group) in the Deary-Liewald task assessing simple and choice reaction time. There were no significant effects of the observed factors in the Trail Making test and Corsii block test tasks. No interaction effect was demonstrated in any of the cognitive-executive tasks. The results indicate the influence of age and training process, especially in sports games, on reaction abilities. Short-term memory and visual control, perception, working memory, and cognitive flexibility are not significantly affected by participation in sport.

Keywords

soccer players, non-sporting boys, simple reaction time, choice reaction time, visuospatial working memory, speed of visual search



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