The Use of a Hockey Specific Stimulus to Measure the Efficiency of the Attention Networks

Abstract

Attention is an important component to successful participation in a variety of sports and activities. Attention can be thought of as three separate but functionally interrelated networks; Alerting, Orienting and Executive Control. The Attention Network Test (ANT) can be used to examine the efficiency of the three networks. Many real life situations such as sport and physical activity involve more complex stimuli. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the scores on the three attention networks using arrow stimuli and using sport specific stimuli (i.e., an image of a hockey player with the stick indicating direction). Thirty-two participants completed two versions of the ANT; one with arrows as stimuli and one with hockey players inserted as the stimuli. As a control, participants were surveyed as to their previous experience in the game of hockey. There were significant orienting, alerting, and executive function for both versions of the ANT (i.e., arrows and hockey stimuli). The only significant difference between the two versions of the test was found with executive function. When using hockey player stimuli, the estimate of executive function was less than that when using arrows. Overall, the results suggest that the use of real life stimuli can be used with the ANT.