Multimodal Immersive Environment for Evaluating Reaction Time and Decision-Making in Sport Situations: A Pilot Study on Time Analysis and Learning Effects

Introduction: The assessment of motor performance in athletes is a multifaceted endeavor, with methods varying across sports, each requiring assessment techniques tailored to its specific characteristics. Sports science research aims to establish reliable methods that depend on the complexity of the instruments. Athletes have been studied in controlled laboratory settings, immersive virtual reality, and real-world scenarios. However, there are inherent limitations in translating findings from controlled laboratory environments to practical sports applications. To bridge this gap, this study introduces a mixed modality, combining virtual immersion with physical objects. We present a quantitative assessment based on time analysis.

Methods: This pilot study evaluated male athletes performing motor reaction tasks, moving their hands in response to visual stimuli under a go/no-go protocol. The same protocol was carried out in a quiet laboratory environment (QLE) and a multimodal immersion environment (MIE). The QLE lacked noise or visual distractions other than the task stimuli. The MIE included a 180°-enveloping screen with sport-specific video and audio noise and the same task stimuli as the QLE. Motion capture and EMG data from the upper limbs were collected. Reaction time (RT) and decision-making time (DM) were used to compare the athletes' performance.

Results and Discussion: The two-way ANOVA showed no significant differences for RT and DM between left- and right-hand performance across environments, consistent with previous findings. The RT in the MIE was significantly shorter, ~10% (p<0.001, ES=0.52), than in the QLE. The DM showed no differences between environments. While the absence of changes in DM suggests consistent processing speed in both environments, the improved RT performance in the MIE indicates a potential advantage for using combined scenarios in future assessments.

Conclusion: A multimodal immersion environment could allow the introduction of specific stimuli for physical training and assessment, thereby improving the transferability of findings to real-world sports situations.