ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explores a variety of theoretical and practical themes raised by the study of the attentional processes of athletes. It summarises the main theoretical and methodological benefits which arise from the study of concentration in sport performers. The book considers three main approaches to the measurement of attentional processes in athletes. These different assessment approaches are necessary simply because attention is a multi-dimensional construct with physiological, cognitive and behavioural referents. A crucial question facing future researchers on attention in sport concerns whether or not these measurement approaches could be combined in order to produce a suitable concentration test battery for athletes. The book reviews four new directions in research on the concentration processes of athletes. These topics included meta-attentional processes, affective influences on attention, the issue of attentional narrowing under perceived pressure, and the attempt to improve the measurement of concentration skills.