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Among young archers, the older ones do worse on memory and attention tasks

2 studies · 65 archers measured

ForContextAgainst2016201820202022202420262017, for, n = 652017, context, n = 652020, context, n = 40
Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

A single Russian study from 2017 on 65 archers aged 13 to 19, 36 recurve and 29 compound, says so, and it is a result that runs against what one would expect from development. Productivity on a memory task falls with age, from 0.91 at 13 to 0.83 at 19 on a scale from zero to one (F = 3.486, p = 0.005), and the slowdown when the stimuli to monitor go from five to twenty grows from 2.54 to 3.86 (F = 3.366, p = 0.006). It also grows with years of shooting, but not in a straight line, from 2.64 after one year to 3.96 at around six. Taking this as an effect of age would be hasty, for two reasons: the tasks were always given in the same order, and the one done last, after half an hour of testing, is precisely the one done best; and a comparison of age bands at a single point in time cannot tell growing up apart from the dropout of those who stopped along the way. Besides, in Turkish children at their first archery lessons the attention score rises sharply with age, as expected, from 55 at 9 to 11 to 83 at 12 to 14.

Also phrased as: "attention drops with age"; "older youngsters get more distracted"; "age and concentration in archers"; "working memory in young archers"

In practice

Among coaches you hear that young archers get more distracted with age and years of competition, and that the best concentration comes in the first years, when everything is new.

Evidence

  • 2017
    For Archers Published later

    65 Russian archers aged 13 to 19, 36 recurve and 29 compound: productivity on a memory task falls as age rises, from 0.91 at 13 to 0.83 at 19 on a scale from 0 to 1 (F = 3.486, p = 0.005).

    Psychological features of attention in archery · Ekaterina Yu. Korobeinikova, Sergey V. Leonov, Irina S. Polikanova

  • 2017
    For Archers Published later

    The slowdown when the squares to monitor go from 5 to 20 grows with age, from 2.54 at 13 to 3.86 at 19 (F = 3.366, p = 0.006), and it also grows with years of shooting, though not in a straight line, from 2.64 after one year to 3.96 at around six (F = 3.024, p = 0.009).

    Psychological features of attention in archery · Ekaterina Yu. Korobeinikova, Sergey V. Leonov, Irina S. Polikanova

  • 2017
    Context Archers Published later

    The tasks were always given in the same order, and the one done last, after about half an hour, is the one done best: productivity 0.89 on the Landolt rings, against 0.85 on the geometric figures and 0.70 on change blindness. When the task gets heavy the archers favour accuracy over speed.

    Psychological features of attention in archery · Ekaterina Yu. Korobeinikova, Sergey V. Leonov, Irina S. Polikanova

  • 2020
    Context General population Published later

    40 Turkish children at their first recreational archery lessons, before the course: on the Bourdon attention test the 9 to 11 group scored 55.13 and the 12 to 14 group 82.72, a baseline gap larger than the average gain of 24.65 points credited to the course. They are beginners measured before starting, in a journal with doubtful editorial standards, so the figure shows how attention develops with age in children generally, not in archers.

    The Effect of Recreative Purpose Modern and Traditional Archery Education on Attention Parameters in Adolescents Questionable venue · Ferhat Ustun, Erdal Tasgin

Status history

  1. 1984 Not studied Nothing in the registry's bibliography had yet looked at how memory and attention change with age within a group of young archers.
  2. 2017 Reported The only study on this record arrives: sixty-five Russian archers aged 13 to 19. Productivity on a memory task falls as age rises, from 0.91 to 0.83 on a scale from zero to one, and the slowdown when the stimuli to monitor go from five to twenty grows both with age and, not in a straight line, with years of shooting. The result runs against expectation, the tasks were always given in the same order and the comparison is between age bands within a single sample, in a regional journal: reported.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Among young archers, the older ones do worse on memory and attention tasks (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/age-attention-young-archers

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_attenzioneetagiovaniarcieri,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Among young archers, the older ones do worse on memory and attention tasks},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/age-attention-young-archers},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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