Does sport affect attention?

This assignment explores the connection between sport and attention.

Attention is a cognitive process that allows us to focus on a particular stimulus while filtering out others. It is important for many everyday activities such as driving, reading, and listening to music. Sport also requires attention, particularly when we are trying to improve our performance or reach new levels of achievement. There is evidence that sport can improve our attentional skills, but it is not clear how this happens.

One theory is that sport helps to develop what is known as executive function. This refers to the ability to plan, organise, and direct our behaviour towards a goal. The skills that are involved in executive function are important for success in many areas of life, and attention is one of them. Several studies have shown that people who regularly participate in sport have better executive function than those who do not.

It is not just the act of participating in sport that can improve our attentional skills, but also the specific characteristics of the activity. For example, activities that require us to switch between different tasks (such as playing tennis or football) are more likely to improve our attention than those that involve doing the same thing over and over again (like running on a treadmill). This is because switching between tasks requires us to constantly adapt and adjust our behaviour, which helps to train our attentional skills.