Relationships between Executive Functioning and Level of Competition in Ice Hockey
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/sjsep.v8i.157918Keywords:
Executive functions, Ice hockey, Level of competition, Updating, Inhibition, ShiftingAbstract
Executive functions (EF) are assumed to play a key role in sports performance. However, few studies have explored how the core components of EF, namely inhibition, updating and shifting, relate to level of competition in ice hockey. General measures of these components were collected, via computerized tests, on male ice hockey players (n = 39) playing at different competitive levels across the Swedish series system. Hockey-specific stimuli were also incorporated into tests of executive functioning to investigate whether information processing was influenced by familiarity with domain-specific content. Results from hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed significant associations between higher competitive level and measures of inhibitoriy control and updating ability, but not with shifting ability. It warrants noting that superior updating performance was related to level of competition only when hockey-specific stimuli were used. Results also showed overall performance differences between general and hockey-adapted tests, as well as associations among EF components, revealing patterns consistent with both shared and distinct variance. These findings indicate that stimulus manipulation can affect task difficulty and sensitivity, underscoring the importance of stimulus selection when adapting general EF tests. While preliminary and cross-sectional, the results suggest that inhibition and updating may be key targets for future longitudinal and sport-specific EF research, with the potential to enhance ecological validity and inform cognitive training in ice hockey.
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