Attention span of grade nine athletic and non-athletic students

This study examines whether there is a difference in attention span when comparing athletes and non-athletes. The specific research questions studied are: (1) Do grade nine athletes have a better attention span than non-athletes? (2) Does the gender difference in grade nine play a role in the athletes' and non-athletes' attention spans? (3) Is there a significant difference between verbal attention span and spatial attention span for both athletes and non-athletes? Forty grade nine students were chosen for this study. The subjects consisted of ten male grade nine basketball players, ten female grade nine basketball players, ten male grade nine non-athletes and ten female grade nine non-athletes. The type of sampling used in this research was purposeful sampling. The instruments used in this research were verbal and spatial tasks which were used to assess attention span. Each task was performed on an individual basis with the researcher. The data was collected over a three-day period. The statistical analysis of the research was conducted using descriptive analysis, t-tests, and one and two-way analysis of variance. It was found that this research does not indicate that there are significant differences in all the dependent variable areas between athletes and non-athletes that were tested through the spatial and verbal tasks used. However, in some of the variables such as the consistency of recurring verbal and spatial spans, there were significant differences, which indicates that further research is needed in order to pursue solutions to the questions that have arisen.