COGNITIVE CHARACTERISTICS AND SOME FACTORS AFFECTING THE SPRINT AND MEMORY COURSE PERFORMANCE OF ORIENTEERS

Abstract

It is known that physical, psychological, and cognitive characteristics are important in orienteering. However, no studies have investigated the effects of cognitive characteristics on performance in practice. This study aimed to determine the effect levels of the different variables of elite male orienteers (i.e., success rate, year of sports experience, short-term memory, visual memory, attention, and concentration) on their performance in two orienteering courses (sprint and memory courses). A total of 36 voluntary elite male athletes who had been orienteering for at least two years, over 18, with a mean age of 24.58±4.85 years and sports experience of 7.83±3.56 years participated in the study. The Cognitrone, VISGED visual memory, d2 attention, and serial digit learning tests were applied to all participants, respectively. All participants ran the memory and sprint orienteering courses at 72-hour intervals in a randomized manner. Afterward, the effects of the athletes’ cognitive performance and some characteristics on the course completion time were examined. According to the results of the linear regression analysis, the model’s independent variables that affected the winning time of the sprint course were the success rate, short-term memory score, and concentration (R= .505, R2= .255, F=3.193, p=.003, p<.01). Among these variables, the variable that predicted the winning time of the sprint course the most was the success rate (B=-244.25, Beta=-0.473, P=.015, p<.05). Year of sports experience, success rate, short-term memory score, concentration, and cog-correct response time were the independent variables affecting the winning time of the memory course (R=.620, R2=.385, F= 3.374, p=.000, p<.001). Year of sports experience was the independent variable with the highest effect on the winning time of the memory course (B=-6.718, Beta=-0.369, p=.029, p<.05). The factors affecting the sprint and memory courses' winning time were examined, and it was concluded that the orienteers' years of sports experience and successes affected the course winning time. These findings suggest that orienteering race performance is more related to the experience of transferring them to orienteering and creating tactical processes rather than the cognitive characteristics of orienteers.