The Test Solutions “Athletes” and “Team Athletes” are suitable for sports psychology talent assessment in adult athletes. The selection and weighting of the test dimensions are based on current meta-analytic findings on the relationship between cognitive, and sensorimotor abilities and personality traits with athletic performance, whereby the weighting and selection of the dimensions were optimized for team and individual sports respectively.
Scharfen and Memmert (2019) were able to show in their meta-analysis that athletes with a high performance level achieve significantly better results in general cognitive ability tests than those with a lower performance level, across various sports. All three examined dimensions, executive functions (such as working memory or cognitive flexibility), visual-perceptual functions (such as visual orientation and attention), and further cognitive functions (for example processing speed and mental rotation), showed higher levels in elite athletes. Another meta-analysis (Kalén et al., 2021) also demonstrated significantly better performance of highly qualified athletes in general ability tests, both in basic and higher cognitive functions. Although Kalén et al. (2021) emphasize that sport-specific cognitive tests in particular have high predictive power for athletic performance, their detailed results as well as the meta-analysis by Scharfen and Memmert (2019) confirm the validity of general cognitive function measures. In team sports, divided attention is particularly relevant within the domain of attention, for example in rugby (Gabbett & Abernethy, 2012) or soccer (Vestberg et al., 2012), where parallel stimulus processing and rapid orientation in dynamic game situations appear central for successful decisions. In individual sports, by contrast, selective attention has been shown in the literature to be of greater importance, for example in archery (Sterkowicz-Przybycien et al., 2015) or combat sports (Lu et al., 2021).
A recent meta-analysis by Yang et al. (2024) further showed that, in addition to cognitive abilities, personality traits are also relevant for athletic performance. In particular, conscientiousness and extraversion proved to be important predictors across sports, both in team and individual sports, whereas openness and emotional stability played a smaller role. Moderator analyses from the same work show that agreeableness has increased relevance in team sports, while conversely in individual sports agreeableness is only weakly associated with athletic performance and expertise.
The Test Solutions “Athletes” and “Team Athletes” therefore include the following dimensions:
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Logical reasoning and spatial visualization ability (INT)
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Processing speed (TMT-S)
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Selective attention: “Athletes”; divided attention: “Team athletes” (TACO)
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Working memory (SPAN)
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Cognitive flexibility (TMT-S)
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Interference (STROOP)
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Reactive stress tolerance (DT)
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Ability to react (RT)
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Obtaining an overview (ATAVT-2)
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Personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Emotional stability (FCB5)
The table below provides a complete overview of the specific weightings of the individual tests for calculating the overall score for the Test Solutions “Athletes” and “Team Athletes”. For the weighting of the cognitive ability tests, the findings from the meta-analyses by Scharfen and Memmert (2019) as well as Kalén and colleagues (2021) were combined and recalculated with a higher level of detail and completeness using the R software package (R Core Team, 2025; metafor package: Viechtbauer, 2010), while the weighting of personality could be directly adopted from a recent meta-analysis (Yang et al., 2024). Further information on the calculation and interpretation of the result of a testing can be found on the page: Notes on evaluation and interpretation.
|
Dimension |
Weighting athletes standard form |
Weighting athletes screening form |
Weighting team athletes standard form |
Weighting team athletes screening form |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cognitive abilities |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
|
Logical reasoning |
6 |
11 |
6 |
11 |
|
Spatial visualization ability |
9 |
16 |
9 |
16 |
|
Processing speed |
8 |
15 |
8 |
15 |
|
Ability to concentrate (selective attention) |
12 |
22 |
- |
- |
|
Divided attention |
- |
- |
12 |
22 |
|
Working memory |
5 |
- |
5 |
- |
|
Cognitive flexibility |
6 |
- |
6 |
- |
|
Interference |
10 |
- |
10 |
- |
|
Reactive stress tolerance |
5 |
- |
5 |
- |
|
Ability to react (reaction speed) |
2 |
- |
2 |
- |
|
Ability to react (motor speed) |
2 |
- |
2 |
- |
|
Obtaining an overview |
10 |
- |
10 |
- |
|
Personality |
25 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
|
Conscientiousness |
10 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
|
Emotional stability |
5 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
|
Extraversion |
8 |
8 |
6 |
6 |
|
Agreeableness |
- |
- |
6 |
6 |
|
Openness |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
For testing, a standard form is available in each case, which assesses all mentioned cognitive dimensions as well as the five personality traits. In addition, a screening form is available in each case, which is limited to central cognitive areas and personality (INT, TMT-S, TACO, FCB5) and does not require additional hardware. The test duration of the standard form for athletes is approximately 77 minutes, and approximately 39 minutes for the screening form. The test duration of the standard form for (Team) Athletes is approximately 79 minutes, and approximately 41 minutes for the screening form.
References can be found here: Literature