While there is a theoretical and empirical consensus that specific cognitive abilities gained through deliberate sports practice influence sports performance, it is less clear whether basic cognitive abilities that are not specifically related to sports practice are relevant to sports performance. Accordingly, this research examined the roles of basic concentration and visuospatial ability in adolescent soccer performance. Participants were 46 adolescent male soccer players ( Mage = 16.15 years, standard deviation = 1.13) who averaged 7.21 years (standard deviation = 2.2) of prior soccer training. We measured participant’s basic cognitive abilities with the Corsi block and the concentration grid tasks, and we measured their soccer performance through five soccer skills. Concentration had no predictive role in elements of soccer performance, but visuospatial ability was significantly related to tactical abilities, technical skills, mental toughness, and situational awareness and thus, to overall soccer performance. These findings provided support for the importance of visuospatial ability but not concentration (as measured by the concentration grid) in young males’ soccer performance.

After several earthquakes occurred in Croatia in 2020, it became clear that the country's inhabitants were not prepared for seismic hazards. The aim of this study was to investigate what factors determine intention to prepare for earthquakes, based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour. A cross‐sectional study was conducted with 374 participants (70.1% women) aged 18–64 years. Participants self‐reported their attitudes toward earthquake preparedness, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and intention to prepare for an earthquake. Structural equation modelling showed that stronger intention to prepare for an earthquake was predicted by more positive attitudes toward earthquake preparedness and by more supportive subjective norms relating to earthquake preparedness. In contrast, perceived behavioural control was not associated with intention to prepare for an earthquake, nor did it moderate the association of attitudes or subjective norms with such intention. These results suggest that attitudes and subjective norms relating to earthquake preparedness are important factors that should be considered in future programmes to improve earthquake preparedness in the Croatian population.

Vješta sportska izvedba, kojoj se divimo i koju uživamo gledati, ne bi bila moguća bez predane vježbe i ekstenzivnog rada. Kao rezultat uključenosti u takav trening eksperti stječu specifične kognitivne vještine, koje, prema teoriji dugoročnog radnog pamćenja (Ericsson i Charness, 1994; Ericsson i Kintsch, 1995), sportašima omogućuju svladavanje ograničenog kapaciteta radnog pamćenja. Sukladno klasičnim modelima stjecanja vještina (npr. Anderson, 1982; Schneider i Shiffrin, 1977) Ericsson (2014) ističe da stečeni mehanizmi postepeno dovode do automatskih procesa umanjujući ili eliminirajući ulogu temeljnih kognitivnih sposobnosti. Potkrijepljen istraživanjima o superiornim specifičnim perceptivno-kognitivnim sposobnostima vrhunskih sportaša (npr. Mann, Williams, Ward i Janelle, 2007; Williams i Ford, 2008) ovaj teorijski okvir postaje dominantnim za objašnjenje vrhunske sportske izvedbe. Ipak, recentne spoznaje upućuju na ulogu radnog pamćenja u sportskoj izvedbi na različitim razinama specifičnog znanja (npr. Hambrick i Meinz, 2011). U ovom su radu prikazane trenutne spoznaje o ulozi specifičnih i temeljnih kognitivnih sposobnosti kao što je radno pamćenje u različitim složenim sportskim situacijama. Osim toga, razmotren je doprinos teorija radnog pamćenja koje naglašavaju ulogu kapaciteta radnog pamćenja, odnosno svjesne kontrole pažnje, razumijevanju sportske izvedbe te njihov potencijal u teorijskoj elaboraciji i boljem razumijevanju vrhunske sportske izvedbe.

Athletic skills acquired through deliberate practice are essential for expert sports performance. Some authors even suggest that practice circumvents the limits of working memory capacity (WMC) in skill acquisition. However, this circumvention hypothesis has been challenged recently by the evidence that WMC plays an important role in expert performance in complex domains such as arts and sports. Here, we have used two dynamic soccer tactical tasks to explore the effect of WMC on tactical performance at different levels of expertise. As expected, professional soccer players exhibited better tactical performance than amateur and recreational players. Furthermore, WMC predicted faster and more accurate tactical decisions in the task under auditory distraction and faster tactical decisions in the task without distraction. Importantly, lack of expertise × WMC interaction suggests that the WMC effect exists at all levels of expertise. Our results speak against the circumvention hypothesis and support a model of independent contributions of WMC and deliberate practice on expert performance in sports.

The aim of the study was twofold: to describe self-reported habits of ICT use in every-day life and to analyze feelings and behavior triggered by ICT and speech deprivation.The study was conducted on three randomly selected groups of students with different tasks: Without Speaking (W/S) group (n=10) spent a day without talking to anyone; Without Technology (W/T) group (n=13) spent a day without using any kind of ICT, while the third group was a control group (n=10) and had no restrictions. The participants’ task in all groups was to write a diary detailing their feelings, thoughts and behaviors related to their group’s conditions.Before the experiment, students reported their ICT related habits. Right after groups were assigned, they reported their task-related impressions. During the experiment, participants wrote diary records at three time-points.All participants used ICT on a daily basis, and most were online all the time. Dominant ICT activities were communication with friends and family, studying, followed by listening to music and watching films.Speech deprivation was a more difficult task compared to ICT deprivation, resulting in more drop-outs and more negative emotions. However, participants in W/S expected the task to be difficult, and some of them actually reported positive experiences, but for others it was a very difficult, lonesome and terrifying experience. About half of the students in W/T claimed that the task was more difficult than they had expected, and some of them realized that they are dysfunctional without technology, and probably addicted to it.