Testing transfer effects of domain-general cognitive abilities to domain-specific decision making in Soccer: Are basic cognitive abilities related to creativity and intelligent decision making?

A frequently investigated question is how domain-general cognitive abilities are related to domain-specific performance. The present study addresses several shortcomings of earlier research on the hypothesized positive relationship between domain-general cognitive ability tests and domain-specific cognitive skills (i.e., decision making) in soccer. By measuring both domain-general cognitive abilities (attentional breadth, multiple object tracking, working memory, and inhibition) and domain-specific performance (creative and intelligent decision making) on continuous scales (n > 100 participants [competitive soccer players] for every pairwise correlation), we avoid the common pitfalls of cross-sectional, between-group comparisons in this field. The results reveal only a small-to-medium correlation between multiple object tracking and intelligent decision making in soccer and a small correlation between attentional breadth and creative decision making, with no other significant associations found in the remaining six hypothesis tests. In addition, playing level was not associated with domain-general cognitive abilities. Taken together, these findings contribute to the growing skepticism regarding the role of domain-general cognitive abilities in explaining team-sport expertise.