The effects of a smartphone game training intervention on executive functions in youth soccer players: a randomized controlled study
DOI: 10.3389/fspor.2023.1170738
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)
Summary
This randomized controlled study investigated whether a domain-generic cognitive training intervention using the smartphone game "Fruit Ninja" could improve executive functions (EFs) in youth soccer players. The research was motivated by the established link between EFs—specifically inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility—and sports performance, alongside uncertainty regarding whether generic cognitive training transfers to athletic populations who already possess high baseline cognitive skills due to their sport expertise. The study involved 33 youth soccer players (aged 16–19) from a German academy, randomly assigned to an intervention group (n=15) or a passive control group (n=18). The intervention group played "Fruit Ninja" for five minutes daily, five days a week, over eight weeks. The control group maintained their usual habits. Executive functions were assessed pre- and post-intervention using computerized tasks: the Flanker and Cued Go/NoGo tasks for inhibition, the 3-back task for working memory, and the number-letter task for cognitive flexibility. Statistical analyses included multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) and ANOVAs to examine time-by-group interactions. The results indicated no significant time-by-group differences attributable to the cognitive training for most measures. Specifically, there were no significant improvements in working memory (3-back task) or cognitive flexibility (number-letter task) for the intervention group compared to the control. For inhibition, the only significant interaction was observed in the response time variable of the Cued Go/NoGo task; however, post-hoc analysis revealed that the intervention group’s performance remained unchanged, while the control group significantly improved their response times. Thus, the intervention did not produce the hypothesized benefits. The authors conclude that this short-term, domain-generic smartphone game intervention did not improve executive function performance in high-level youth soccer players. They suggest that athletes may experience ceiling effects due to their existing high cognitive skills or that domain-generic training lacks the specificity required for transfer to athletic contexts. The study highlights the need for further research into domain-specific interventions to determine if they can effectively enhance cognitive functions in high-performance team sport athletes.
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-19 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-19 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-19 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-19 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-19 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-19 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.