Author(s): NÉGYESI, J., Institution: HUNGARIAN UNIVERSITY OF SPORTS SCIENCE, Country: HUNGARY, Abstract-ID: 221

INTRODUCTION:
In psychology, questionnaires are often used to permit valuable insights into an individual’s cognitive functions, however, supplementary objective alternative measures are needed to collect a more diverse range of information about such outcomes. The Vienna Test System (VTS) is one of the most widely used computerized tools for assessing psychology-related constructs in the athletic population. In the present scoping review, we aimed to draw attention to the challenges in the practical application of the VTS for assessing cognitive functions.
METHODS:
A systematic literature search was conducted across four databases (PubMed, Web of Science, ELSEVIER Scopus, and EBSCOhost). Besides the participants’ characteristics and key findings, the highest Scimago Journal Ranking (SJR) of each paper in the year of the publication was also considered.
RESULTS:
Our literature search identified 41 relevant articles, including 2 of our previous papers (Horvath et al 2022, Horvath et al 2023). The total number of participants was 1789 (n = 256 females and n = 1316 males, seven studies did not provide information on gender) with a mean age of 21.2 years (range between 10-64 years). The participants’ field of sport ranged from yoga-practicing older females to professional athletes (e.g., racing drivers, soccer players, wrestlers and taekwondo competitors, Polish amateur boxers, and rhythmic gymnasts). Of the 41 articles, 10 were published in Q1 journals, 7 in Q2, 6 in Q3, and 2 in Q4. Notably, 16 (39% of the studies) were published in journals that do not appear in SJR.
CONCLUSION:
The wide spectrum of cognitive tests of the VTS has the potential to assess e.g., sustained attention, reaction time, peripheral perception, stress reactivity, or time movement anticipation. However, the relatively poor experimental designs of many studies using VTS make it difficult to draw clear conclusions about its validity and feasibility.