Detection of targets and attentional flexibility: Can computerized simulation account for developmental and skill-level differences?

Two studies were carried out to examine target detection and attentional flexibility in basketball and tennis players. In the first study, 140 basketball players of 3 age-categories and two skill-levels (high and low) were exposed to 80 game scenes, half structured and half transitional, with only 50% of them containing an «exceptional» target. They were asked to scan the computerized display and decide whether an exceptional target is absent or present as fast as possible. The results indicated that with experience/age, decision time is faster and high skill results in more accurate decisions across all ages. In the second study, high and low skill-level tennis players from 3 different age-categories performed a computerized tennis task which consisted of priming a response (80% of the time if preceded by an x) and examining the reaction time in the «benefit» (80%), «cost» (20%), and «neutral» (50%) conditions during 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 seconds intervals between warning and imperative stimuli. The results revealed that with experience, reaction time becomes faster in all 3 conditions, and high skill players gain more from the «benefit» than «cost» condition, contrary to results obtained by less skilled players. Both studies failed to show that differences in attentional flexibility and target detection increase with experience and skill-level. Several explanations are suggested which relate to the extent that computerized tasks can mimic the requirements of the true game decisions.