Assessing Psychomotor Abilities in Handcyclists using Computerized

Tests: An Initial Study

Wojciech Pasko

, Justyna Dydek

, Janusz Zielinski

, Tomasz Hulewicz

, Maciej

Sli

Bartosz Dziadek

and Krzysztof Przednowek

Institute of Physical Culture Sciences, Medical College of Rzesz

ow University, Rzesz

ow, Poland

Keywords:

Psychomotor Abilities, Motor Time, Reaction Time, Disabled Athletes, Handcyclist.

Abstract:

Psychomotor abilities play an important role in any sport, they affect the speed of decisions made in a given

situation, and thus can have a direct impact on the ﬁnal outcome of sports competition. The study included

ten disabled handcyclists who represented Poland internationally in the H2, H3, H4 and H5 categories. The

control group consisted of non-disabled 5th year physical education students at the University of Rzeszow.

The research methods were psychomotor tests using computer techniques in the Test2Drive system. For the

evaluation, the tests performed were: simple reaction time (SIRT), complex reaction time (CHORT), hand-eye

coordination (HECOR) and spatial orientation (SPANT). Reaction time (RT), motor time (MT) and correct

responses (c.r.) were analyzed. The group of disabled cyclists is characterized by better motor time in each

test while no statistical signiﬁcance was shown. A better reaction time in each psychomotor test was achieved

by the control group and the differences are statistically signiﬁcant. Better motor time may suggest that cycling

training has a positive effect on psychomotor abilities.

1 INTRODUCTION

In recent years, there has been an increased interest

in the study of cognitive abilities in sport (Moran,

2009). It is assumed that cognitive abilities play an

important role in every sporting discipline (Malacko,

2010). Scharfen and Memmert (Scharfen and Mem-

mert, 2019) showed that perceptual-cognitive abilities

allow one to perceive one’s surroundings and use this

perception to make the optimal decision for given ac-

tions. These authors also observed that cognitive abil-

ities cannot be clearly separated from perceptual abil-

ities, as they are a crucial part of perception. Shing et

al. (Singh and Singh, 2016) showed that psychomo-

tor abilities signiﬁcantly inﬂuence the abilities of se-

lected sport skills in volleyball. On the other hand,

Yuksel and Tunc (Y

uksel and Tunc¸, 2018) observed

that in a group of badminton players of the national

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4312-6140

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https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0108-5029

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https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-7374-8472

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5368-0159

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2128-4116

teams competing during the Rumia tournament, reac-

tion time, in addition to technical and tactical training,

had a very strong inﬂuence on victory. The aforemen-

tioned reaction time, which is deﬁned as the time from

stimulus onset to response onset (Ciucurel, 2012) is

considered the main determinant for assessing psy-

chomotor performance (Ando et al., 2005). However,

it is conditioned by a number of factors such as: gen-

der, age, fatigue, nutrition, genetic conditions, indi-

vidual predispositions or type of stimulus (Szafraniec

et al., 2012).

Knowledge regarding the level of psychomotor

abilities among disabled athletes is still fragmented

and incomplete (Di Russo et al., 2010). Physical dis-

ability which is deﬁned as a morphological, perma-

nent or functional impairment of the musculoskele-

tal system, can to varying degrees, make it difﬁ-

cult or completely impossible to undertake an activity

(Tasiemski et al., 2020), so the type of sport practised

must be adapted to the type of disability. This has

resulted in an elaborate classiﬁcation system that de-

ﬁnes the type and extent of musculoskeletal dysfunc-

tion (Sobiecka, 2011), which translates into a diver-

sity of testing opportunities among disabled athletes

(DePauw and Gavron, 2005).

Handcycling is a form of mobility for people with

Pasko, W., Dydek, J., Zielinski, J., Hulewicz, T.,

Sli

z, M., Dziadek, B. and Przednowek, K.

Assessing Psychomotor Abilities in Handcyclists using Computerized Tests: An Initial Study.

DOI: 10.5220/0011553200003321

In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Sport Sciences Research and Technology Support (icSPORTS 2022), pages 137-142

ISBN: 978-989-758-610-1; ISSN: 2184-3201

137

lower limb impairments, a competitive sport and a

sporting discipline in paracycling and paratriathlon

respectively (Stephenson et al., 2021). The discipline

can be considered as a combination of perceptual-

motor and cognitive tasks (Wierda and Brookhuis,

1991). The progression of elite handcycling and also

the competitiveness of the sport, is associated with

the need to expand our knowledge of the internal

and external factors inﬂuencing athletic performance

(Stephenson et al., 2021). Handcycling has often

been researched in relation to rehabilitation (Kraai-

jenbrink et al., 2021), but information on the level of

psychomotor abilities in the sport training aspect is

scarce. Scientiﬁc studies have only assessed the re-

lationship between selected factors and stress coping

strategies in handcyclists (Turo

n-Skrzypi

nska et al.,

2020). Other work has mainly focused on different

sporting disciplines (Di Russo et al., 2010), (Choj-

nacki et al., 2006), (Faber et al., 2019)

Awareness of the leading psychomotor abilities in

sport is fundamental in determining appropriate train-

ing measures. Developing the components of psy-

chomotor abilities signiﬁcantly helps both young and

skilled athletes in the process of learning to manage

their own motor abilities perfectly and to improve the

performance of their technical skills (Arifjanovich,

2020), therefore the aim of this study is to evaluate

selected psychomotor abilities of handcyclists, mea-

sured by the Test2Drive computerized test.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Materials

The subjects of the study was a group of ten disabled

males handcyclists representing Poland internation-

ally, who stratify in the H2, H3, H4 and H5 cate-

gories. The athletes were selected from among ath-

letes who practice handcycling in Poland and train at

least three times a week. The training seniority of the

study group was a minimum of three years. The con-

trol group consisted of able-bodied male students who

are in their 5th year of graduate studies in physical ed-

ucation at the University of Rzeszow.

2.2 Methods

The research methods were psychomotor tests per-

formed using computer techniques in the Test2Drive

system (Tarnowski, 2016). The paper by Tarnowski

et al. describes the validity of the tests. The following

four tests were used:

• Test SIRT– assesses the speed of the response and

its stability. The stimulus signaling ﬁeld changed

its color at appropriate points in time. Response

to the stimuli consisted of moving the ﬁnger from

the START ﬁeld to the reaction time ﬁeld marked

in blue.

• Test CHORT– assesses the speed and appropri-

ateness of the complex response. The top sig-

naling row displayed horizontal patterns (stimuli)

and vertical stimuli, which require a response, and

an oblique pattern (neutral stimuli), which does

not require a response. Response to the stimuli

consisted of moving the ﬁnger from the START

ﬁeld to one of the two response ﬁelds (vertical

or horizontal stimulus ﬁeld). During the neutral

stimulus, the ﬁnger remained in the START ﬁeld.

• Test HECOR– Assesses eye-hand coordination.

The test required careful observation of the board

and a quick reaction to the red signal box dis-

played. The test participant had to move their ﬁn-

ger from the START box to the blue reaction box

and return with the ﬁnger again to the START box.

• Test SPANT– assesses eye-hand coordination us-

ing complex spatial information. At the top left

and right of the test board were signal boxes, two

of which (on a row and one on a column) turned

red simultaneously. In response to a stimulus, the

test participant was to point their ﬁnger to the box

at the intersection of the illuminated row and col-

umn, and then put their ﬁnger down on the START

box.

Each test was performed in a standing position to

facilitate access to the screen area, which was in a

horizontal position during the tests. At the beginning,

each test participant received detailed instructions on

how to perform each test. After the instructions, the

test subjects went through a practice stage where they

could learn how to perceive stimuli and respond. The

subjects then moved on to the actual testing stage,

where they had to respond as quickly as possible to

the stimuli in all tests. The test stand and the appear-

ance of the tests are shown in Figure 1.

2.3 Statistical Methods

The study used basic statistical measures such as

number, arithmetic mean, standard deviation and co-

efﬁcient of variability. The statistical signiﬁcance of

differences between groups was determined using the

Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test. The effect size was

calculated using the formula (Tomczak and Tomczak,

icSPORTS 2022 - 10th International Conference on Sport Sciences Research and Technology Support

138

Figure 1: Reaction panel of the Test2Drive system; a) SIRT–Simple Reaction Time Test, b) CHORT–Choice Reaction Time

Test, c) HECOR–Hand-Eye Coordination Test, d) SPANT–Spatial Anticipation Test.

2014):

r =

√

(1)

where: Z–standardized value for the U-value, r–

correlation coefﬁcient where r assumes the value

ranging from −1.00 to 1.00, N–the total number of

observations on which Z is based. Calculations and

analyses were performed using the GNU R environ-

ment and at the level of signiﬁcance α = 0,05 (R Core

Team, 2020).

3 RESULTS

Table 1 shows the mean values of the computational

psychomotor tests for the group of disabled athletes

and the control group. In the SIRT test, the control

group obtained a shorter reaction time (329.8 ±30.5

ms), while the group of disabled athletes obtained

a shorter motor time (214.4 ±48.8 ms). Figure 2

shows a box plot for the SIRT RT test, which shows

the results obtained for the disabled athlete group

and the control group, where statistical signiﬁcance

was observed for differences (p=0.0041). Also in the

CHECOR test, the control group had a shorter reac-

tion time (685.5 ms) and the disabled athletes group

achieved a better result in motor time (279.1 ±67.3

ms). The results of the CHORT RT test, where statis-

tical signiﬁcance was also observed (p=0.0044), are

shown in ﬁgure 3. On the other hand, more correct

responses in the CHORT test were obtained by the

control group (96.1 ±5.2 %). A better reaction time

in the HECOR test was obtained by the control group

(390.3±36.2 ms), while in the case of motoric time in

the HECOR test, the better result was obtained by the

disabled athletes group (284.3 ±53.9 ms). The sta-

tistical signiﬁcance of the HECOR RT test is shown

in ﬁgure 4, which was p=0.013. In the ﬁnal SPANT

test, the shorter reaction time was also obtained by

the control group (643.3 ±116 ms) and the disabled

athletes group had a shorter motor time (321.3 ±95.4

ms). A higher rate of correct responses in the SPANT

test was obtained by the control group. The last sta-

tistically signiﬁcant difference between the results ob-

tained is shown in ﬁgure 5, which relates to reaction

time for the SPANT test, and is p=0.043.

4 DISCUSSION

This paper presents the results of psychomotor abili-

ties of handcyclists. The study was conducted using

computer tests, and the results were compared with

the control group.

The analysis shows that the handcyclists were

characterized by worse reaction times in each test than

the control group. However, it is worth noting that

the control group is non-training able-bodied people.

Thus, it seems that lower limb disabilities are char-

acterized by slower reaction times than non-disabled

Assessing Psychomotor Abilities in Handcyclists using Computerized Tests: An Initial Study

139

Table 1: Numeral characteristics of psychomotor abilities of disabled cyclists vs control group.

Variable

Disabled (N = 10) Control (N = 12) d

p r

¯x sd V ¯x sd V (D-C)

Simple Reaction Time (SIRT)

RT [ms] 381,8 39,1 10,2 329,8 30,5 9,2 52,0 0,0041* 0,61

MT [ms] 214,4 46,8 21,8 291,9 131,0 44,9 -77,5 0,0518 -0,41

Choice Reaction Time (CHORT) Test

RT [ms] 799,6 66,6 8,3 685,5 83,2 12,1 114,1 0,0044* 0,58

MT [ms] 279,1 67,3 24,1 297,8 61,9 20,8 -18,7 0,3390 -0,20

c.r. [%] 88,9 10,8 12,1 96,3 5,2 5,4 -7,3 0,0750 -0,38

Hand-Eye Coordination Test (HECOR)

RT [ms] 449,3 48,4 10,8 390,3 36,2 9,3 59,1 0,0134* 0,53

MT [ms] 284,3 53,9 19,0 335,1 63,2 18,8 -50,8 0,0865 -0,37

Spatial Anticipation Test (SPANT)

RT [ms] 706,9 73,6 10,4 643,3 116,0 18,0 63,7 0,0433* 0,43

MT[ms] 321,3 95,4 29,7 331,7 56,7 17,1 -10,4 0,2766 -0,23

c.r. [%] 88,0 11,4 12,9 91,7 13,0 14,2 -3,7 0,2623 -0,24

D– disabled group, C– control group, c.r.–correct responses; x–mean value, sd–standard de-

viation, V –coefﬁcient of variation, p–probability of testing, r–effect size for the the Mann-

Whitney-Wilcoxon test, *–statistical signiﬁcance.

0.0041

300

350

400

450

disabled control

SIRT_RT [ms]

Figure 2: Box plot for SIRT RT for disabled group and con-

trol group showing median and interquartile range.

people. Of course, this conclusion is based on a small

number of subjects and needs to be conﬁrmed by

more extensive research.

The exceptions were the motor times in each test,

where the motor time is beter in disabled group, but

they did not show statistical signiﬁcance. The bet-

ter motor times in coordination tests may suggest that

cycling training has a positive effect on hand-eye co-

ordination. Analysis of psychomotor abilities in sol-

0.0044

600

700

800

900

disabled control

CHORT_RT [ms]

Figure 3: Box plot for CHORT RT for disabled group and

control group showing median and interquartile range.

diers and athletes has shown that sports training sig-

niﬁcantly improves motor time (Pa

sko et al., 2022).

Similar conclusions were reached by Singh and

Amandeep (Singh, 2009), who observed improve-

ments in reaction speed after introducing 6-week ply-

ometric training. Comparisons between young soccer

players and non-trained individuals also suggest that

sports training has a positive effect on reaction speed

(Mont

es-Mic

o et al., 2000). Similarly, in a study

on handball players, it was observed that those who

icSPORTS 2022 - 10th International Conference on Sport Sciences Research and Technology Support

140

0.013

350

400

450

500

disabled control

HECOR_RT [ms]

Figure 4: Box plot for HECOR RT for disabled group and

control group showing median and interquartile range.

0.043

500

600

700

800

900

disabled control

SPANT_RT [ms]

Figure 5: Box plot for SPANT RT for disabled group and

control groupshowing median and interquartile range.

trained had better motor time than those who did not

train (Przednowek et al., 2019).

The presented research is a pilot study and has

a number of limitations. One of the main ones is

the small number of people surveyed. It also seems

that handcyclists should also be compared with non-

training disabled people. Formulating detailed con-

clusions requires expanding the study to include a

larger experimental group, so future work will focus

on considering a more handcyclists.

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