Jie Li

Dynamic soccer environments require athletes to track multiple moving objects while continuously adapting to changing attentional demands. However, whether soccer expertise is associated with differences in load sensitivity during increasing tracking demands remains unclear. This study investigated expertise-related differences in behavioral and neural responses during a multiple-object tracking (MOT) task. Twenty-two soccer athletes and 24 non-athletes completed low- and high-load MOT tasks while behavioral performance and EEG activity were recorded. Exploratory ERP analyses identified two positive components time-locked to cue onset and tracking onset, distributed over frontal and fronto-central regions, respectively. Tracking accuracy, ERP amplitudes, and posterior α-band dynamics were analyzed. Soccer athletes showed reduced behavioral load sensitivity, with smaller accuracy declines under increased tracking demands. Consistent with this pattern, athletes exhibited attenuated load-dependent modulation of posterior α activity. In addition, reduced frontal and fronto-central ERP amplitudes during cueing and early tracking provided complementary evidence for expertise-related differences in attentional processing, although ERP load modulation did not differ between groups. In conclusion, soccer expertise is associated with reduced sensitivity to increasing attentional demands during MOT, reflected in behavioral performance and posterior α-band regulation, alongside complementary differences in frontal neural responses. These findings highlight load sensitivity as an important feature of skilled performance and suggest that expertise-related neural adaptations involve multiple attentional systems.

Objectives: The aim of the present study is to examine the developmental trajectory of 3D-MOT performance in young soccer players, and to investigate the age-related 3D-MOT performance training effect. Methods: First, Experiment 1 assessed 3D-MOT performance of 404 male soccer players aged 12–18 years. Then, 127 athletes in Experiment 1 aged 13, 15, and 17 were selected as participants in Experiment 2, randomly assigned to intervention group and the control group. The intervention group but not the control group received 15 sessions of 3D-MOT training (3 sessions per day for 20 minutes for 5 days). Subsequently, post-test of 3D-MOT performance was conducted on the two groups. Results: Experiment 1 showed that there was a significant main effect of age on the peak speed (p < .001,η² = .041) of 3D-MOT performance, with the performance of participants aged 15 significantly higher than that of those aged 13 (p = .018, d = −0.559). Experiment 2 revealed a significant main effect of the intervention, including peak speed (p < .001), average speed(p < .001),and speed threshold(p < .001), but the interaction between the intervention and the age group was not significant. Conclusions: This research provide evidence that the 3D-MOT performance of young soccer players exhibits an increase between 13 and 15. Moreover, the results showed a significant training improvement in youth soccer players, but there was no significant relationship between the age-related development of 3D-MOT and the training effect in young soccer players. The above results provide new insights into soccer science and practice. Given the lack of data for those players younger than 12, this restricts the inference of whether there are potential sensitive periods. The study suggest that in the future, more evidence on athletes under the age of 12 be added to enhance the understanding of the full developmental trajectory of 3D-MOT performance in soccer players.

Classical two-dimensional multiple object tracking (2D-MOT) measures the cognitive ability to track multiple moving elements in real-life-like scenarios. Stereo-three-dimensional MOT (S-3D-MOT), a more ecologically valid form of 2D-MOT, shows better tracking performance in soccer players. Its unique feature is the additional binocular and monocular 3D cues compared to 2D-MOT, but their individual contributions to MOT performance are unclear. To fill this research gap, the current study introduced a three-dimensional MOT task on a flat screen (F-3D-MOT) to distinguish the roles of binocular and monocular 3D cues. F-3D-MOT provides additional monocular 3D cues compared to classical 2D-MOT but lacks binocular 3D cues compared to S-3D-MOT. Moreover, whether the effects of these 3D cues on MOT performance vary between soccer players and non-athletes remains unclear. Therefore, both groups were recruited for this study. The results showed that soccer players performed significantly better than non-athletes specifically in S-3D-MOT, indicating their enhanced sensitivity to binocular 3D cues. In contrast, neither monocular cues (F-3D-MOT) nor 2D displays led to significant differences between the two groups.

Situational awareness (SA) refers to “knowing what is going on” in a situation. As an essential concept originating in aviation literature approximately 40 years ago, SA has demonstrated significant potential and has since been extended across various fields, leading to a growing body of research. With its expanding application in diverse fields, SA literature has become increasingly fragmented. This study systematically reviews previous empirical studies to provide a structured categorization and comprehensive analysis of SA applications, contributing to the advancement of SA research. Our search identified 2860 empirical studies on SA published between 1975 and 2024, spanning 11 major fields, including aviation, driving, power systems, traffic and transportation, health care and medicine, emergency management, military, training, sport, system autonomy, and network information and communication. We examined the specific characteristics of SA in these fields and, by integrating the characteristics with human factors/ergonomics principles, developed a comprehensive framework. Based on this framework, we categorized the SA research into three groups: the ergonomics‐centered group (e.g., aviation), the human‐centered group (e.g., sports), and the machine‐centered group (e.g., system autonomy). Our findings have the potential to foster collaboration among researchers across diverse fields, facilitating the expansion and integration of SA research through cross‐referencing theories, models, and methodologies.

Tracking multiple distinct moving objects requires periodically refreshing the objects’ identity-location bindings. Classic theories assume that indi

This study compared the multiple object tracking (MOT) performance of athletes vs. non-athletes and expert athletes vs. novice athletes by systematically reviewing and meta-analyzing the literature. A systematic literature search was conducted using five databases for articles published until July 2024. Healthy people were included, specifically classified as athletes and non-athletes, or experts and novices. Potential sources of heterogeneity were selected using a random-effects model. Moderator analyses were also performed. A total of 23 studies were included in this review. Regarding the overall effect, athletes were significantly better at MOT tasks than non-athletes, and experts performed better than novices. Subgroup analyses showed that expert athletes had a significantly larger effect than novices, and that the type of sport significantly moderated the difference in MOT performance between the two groups. Meta-regression revealed that the number of targets and duration of tracking moderated the differences in performance between experts and novices, but did not affect the differences between athletes and non-athletes. This meta-analysis provides evidence of performance advantages for athletes compared with nonathletes, and experts compared with novices in MOT tasks. Moreover, the two effects were moderated by different factors; therefore, future studies should classify participants more specifically according to sports levels.