Kosar Abbaspour; Moahammadtaghi Aghdasi; Zahra Fathirezaie; Seyed Hojjat Zamani Sani; Stefan Schneider
Abstract
Introduction: Although vision is the dominant sensory system in sports, many situations require multisensory integration. It is noteworthy that the effect of auditory stimuli with visual stimuli in athletes has not been comprehensively investigated. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the ...
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Introduction: Although vision is the dominant sensory system in sports, many situations require multisensory integration. It is noteworthy that the effect of auditory stimuli with visual stimuli in athletes has not been comprehensively investigated. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of unisensory and multisensory information processing on decision-making under pressure.Methods: The study was conducted as a quasi-experimental design with a statistical population of elite male badminton players. Thirteen of them were selected by simple random sampling. The players were required to respond correctly in a badminton spatial decision-making task under four conditions (visual stimulus, auditory stimulus, congruent visual-auditory stimulus, and incongruent visual-auditory stimulus) in two normal and under-pressure conditions. PsychoPy software was used to design the task and assess decision-making accuracy, and for statistical analysis, repeated measures variance (2×4) was used at a significance level of 0.05.Results: The results indicated that the decision-making accuracy of elite badminton players in the congruent visual-auditory condition (multisensory) was significantly better than the unisensory visual and auditory conditions separately, especially under pressure. Additionally, decision-making accuracy in the incongruent visual-auditory condition was significantly lower than in the other three conditions.Conclusion: It can be concluded that multisensory integration (visual-auditory) enhances decision-making accuracy in elite badminton players more than unisensory processing (either visual or auditory), which can be explained based on information processing theory. The results also showed that decision-making in all four sensory conditions under pressure was better than in normal conditions, which can be attributed to the high level of experience and skill of athletes in pressure conditions.
