優秀運動員選才在運動競技領域上扮演著影響勝敗的關鍵角色。過去在挑選潛在選手及針對優秀競技選手的日常訓練,主要是以強化肌力、肌耐力、柔軟度和心肺功能等生理能力及運動技術為主軸。近幾十年來,關於運動科學領域的研究重心已逐漸轉向至探討運動員在訊息處理能力及注意力上的表現是否較優於一般人。本文將利用訊息處理模型為主架構來針對運動員的訊息處理能力與注意力作全面性的探討。從接受環境訊息至執行反應動作,運動員在訊息處理模型中的三大階段皆明顯地表現比一般人傑出。於最初的知覺階段,運動員有較快速的知覺處理速度,來快速整合外界訊息,這快速的知覺處理速度可以增加運動員用來預測及因應對手攻擊策略的準備時間;於決策與反應選擇及執行兩階段,運動員亦有較優秀的反應抑制能力,來快速因應對手的假動作及競技場上的瞬息萬變。傑出運動員於注意力控制能力上亦有相對高程度的表現,可以快速地將注意力從不正確的空間位置中脫離,並轉移至正確位置。雖然過去研究證實運動員在所有與訊息處理模型各階段相關的測試當中皆表現地比一般人傑出,但是此結果並無法應用於特殊專長項目運動的選手選才上。因此,建議未來研究可以藉由不同特殊專長項目運動之間在訊息處理模型各階段的測試比較,來定位出特殊專長項目運動與特定訊息處理能力或注意力之間的對應性,未來便可以利用特定測試來達到特殊運動專長項目運動選才的目的性。
Talented selection for athletes plays an important role in determining who may have a higher possibility to win the game. Previously, selecting talented athletes and designing daily training programs were based on the physical abilities of athletes, such as muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, and cardiopulmonary function. Recently, researchers in sport sciences have focused on investigating whether athletes have better performance than non-athletes on information processing and attentional control. This paper discusses the issue according to the Information Processing Model. In all three stages of the Information Processing Model, athletes have more outstanding performance than non-athletes. For example, in the perceptual processing stage, athletes have faster perceptual processing speed to integrate environmental information than non-athletes. This faster perceptual processing speed makes athletes have more time to anticipate the opponent's attacking strategy and prepare how to response it accordingly. In the stages of decision and response selection, and of response execution, athletes have a more exceptional ability of inhibition control than non-athletes to withdraw the response execution when opponents do the fake motion, and to appropriately response during the game competition. Elite athletes may have a high-level performance on attentional control. They can quickly disengage their attention from incorrect spatial locations and then shift to correct spatial locations. Although athletes overall have better performance than non-athletes in all tests during the three stages of Information Processing Model, it is still difficult to make clear talent selection of athletes for specific-discipline sports. The future studies can compare performances among distinct specific-discipline sports in each test of Information Processing Model, to figure out the appropriate approach to select talented athletes of the specific-discipline sports.