Study of the persistence style among elite athletes by means of a computerized simulation task

Abstract

The 'persistence' style is defined as the tendency for high constant rates of responses a person shows in situations under contingent reinforcement which require high rates or high intensity of responses. The purpose of this study was to explore if the tendency to `persistence' differs between a control group and a group of elite athletes, and also if among the athletes there are systematic differences in operant and physiological measurements in a simulation task. 32 university student and 37 elite athletes of different sports participated in the study. Matveev taxonomy (1983) of sport categories was used. The test consisted or a performance computerized task which was a video game with a fixed ratio 150 (FR150) schedule of reinforcement, that allowed to earn points every 150th response. Results showed that rapid force and precision athletes exhibited high response rates, with patterns of rapid trains of responses alternated with pauses, on the other hand resistence and artistic competitive athletes showed low rates of response and leveled and low patterns. Combat athletes exhibited high response rates and high homogeneous patterns. Athletes of ball sports did not showed differential tendencies. In regard to cardiovascular changes due to the exposition of the task two groups differed from the rest: rapid force, resistence and combat athletes decreased their cardiovascular indexes, while the artistic competitive sport people incresed them; the rest of the groups did not modified significatively their blood pressures or their heart rate. Advantages of the use of performance tests for assessment of behavioral styles is discussed, and some behavioral characteretics of elite athletes are pointed out.