The Relationship Between Cognitive Characteristics and Decision Making

Team handball players (N = 118) underwent a number of cognitive tests to examine how much of their decision making (DM) ability, as measured through responses to game slides projected to them for 2 seconds under low and high exertion levels (i.e., walking and running), was accounted for by cognitive components. A stepwise multiple linear regression indicated that experience was the most pronounced predictor of DM capacity in both exertion conditions. In the walking condition, concentrational consistency, avoidance of concentrational mistakes, and short-term memory, together with experience, produced a multiple R of 0.48 with decision making. In the running condition, choice reaction time (CRT), intelligence, and short-term memory, together with experience, correlated 0.46 with DM. These differences in cognitive abilities, as predictors of DM under walking and running conditions, are discussed in terms of information processing models and other cognitive processes.