The influence of analogies on the development of selective attention in novices in normal or stressful conditions

The effect of explicit, implicit, and analogy learning methods on developing selective attention skills in young novice participants was examined under normal and stressful conditions. The 60 novice participants, aged 11-12 years old, followed a video simulation intervention program of 12 sessions (3 times * 4 weeks). They were tested four times (pre-test, post-test, retention, and stress test) to evaluate their reaction time and accuracy in selective attention skills. The differences among the groups and the measurements were analysed using a two-way mixed factorial ANOVA (4 groups * 4 measurements), and post-hoc Bonferroni evaluated significant differences among the groups. The results showed that all three experimental groups improved their performance in response reaction time and accuracy from the pre-test to the post-test and maintained their scores on the retention test. However, the analogy group had the best scores, followed by the implicit group, and they were both better than the explicit group. According to the stress test, the analogy and the implicit group remained unaffected while the explicit group showed a decrease in both reaction time and accuracy. Training by analogy was more effective in improving selective attention in novices in both normal and stressful conditions. Analogy learners probably developed an advanced mechanism that allowed them to quickly and accurately select the most useful information from the sport setting even in stressful conditions. This research highlights the advantages of simulation techniques; future research may assess selective attention in real conditions.