The Comparison of Trail Making Test Scores of Open and Closed Skill Sports Athletes

Abstract

The aim of this research was to compare the Trail Making Test (TMT) scores of open and closed skills sports’ athletes. Total of 85 volunteers who are footballers, track and field athletes and sedentary participated. Participants performed the short form of International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and TMT (A/B). The statistical package program “SPSS 22.0” was used to analyze the data. In the analysis of categorical data, independent-t test and one-way analysis of variance were used to examine the statistical difference between independent groups. Correlations between continuous variables were performed using Pearson’s corelation analysis. There was no statistically significant difference between the TMT score of footballers and track and field athletes (p>0.05). While there was no statistically significant difference between the metabolic equivalent (MET) levels of football players and track and field athletes (p<0.05), the MET levels of both groups were significantly higher than those of sedentary group (p>0.05). As a result, there was no difference between open skill athletes (footballers) and closed-skill athletes (track and field athlete) in terms of motor processing speed, attention, number sorting (form A) and task-switch, cognitive flexibility, functioning memory, visual scanning (form B) skills.

Keywords

• Open Skilled
• Closed Skill
• Trail Making Test

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