Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under CC BY-NC 4.0 license
Authors
- Kosar Abbaspour 1
- Moahammadtaghi Aghdasi 1
- Zahra Fathirezaie 1
- Seyed Hojjat Zamani Sani 1
- Stefan Schneider 2
1 University of Tabriz
2 German Sport University Cologne
Abstract
Although visual senses are dominant in sports, many situations require multisensory integration. Notably, the interaction of auditory stimuli with visual stimuli in athletes has not been comprehensively examined. Therefore, the aim of the present research is to investigate the effects of unisensory and multisensory information processing on decision-making under pressure.
The study was conducted as a semi-experimental design with a statistical population of elite male badminton players. Among them, 13 players were selected using simple random sampling. The players were required to respond correctly to a spatial decision-making task in badminton under four conditions (visual stimulus, auditory stimulus, congruent visual-auditory stimulus, and incongruent visual-auditory stimulus) in both normal and pressure situations. The task design and decision-making accuracy evaluation were carried out using PsychoPy and the repeated measures ANOVA was used at a significance level of 0.05.
The results indicated that the decision-making accuracy of elite badminton players in the congruent visual-auditory condition (multisensory) was significantly better than in 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.
It can be concluded that multisensory integration (visual-auditory) enhances decision-making accuracy in elite badminton players more than unisensory processing (visual or auditory), which can be explained by information processing theory. Furthermore, the results showed that decision-making in all four sensory conditions under pressure was better than in normal conditions, which can be attributed to the athletes' high level of experience and skill in pressured situations.
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