Can Training Background Offset the Disadvantage Associated With Relative Age Effect on Perceptual-Cognitive Skills...

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which relative age effect (RAE) impacts the development of perceptual-cognitive skills and how training background may potentially offset RAE from childhood into adolescence.

One hundred sixty-five 10- to 16-year-old male participants were divided into 8 groups based on their birth quartiles (BQ1 [January-March], BQ2 [April-June], BQ3 [July-September], and BQ4 [October-December]) and training background (moderately trained: 1-2 sessions/wk and well-trained: 4-5 sessions/wk). Their perceptual-cognitive skills were evaluated using a 3D multiple-object tracking task (ie, the NeuroTracker [NT]) with (3D) and without (2D) stereopsis.

In moderately trained children, NT scores progressively decreased from BQ1 to BQ4, with a significant difference between the first 3 birth quartiles and BQ4 (P < .01), independent of stereopsis. In well-trained children, however, no significant differences were detected in NT scores between quartiles, and well-trained children in BQ4 exhibited NT scores comparable to moderately trained children in the first 3 quartiles.

RAE showed a significant disadvantage on the perceptual-cognitive scores in moderately trained children born in BQ4. However, well-trained children born in BQ4 performed similarly to other well-trained children and to moderately trained children born in the first 3 birth quartiles, meaning that training background may offset the disadvantage associated with RAE from childhood into adolescence.