Domain-specific adaptations in visual working memory: differentiated performance profiles between open- and...

This study examined the performance characteristics of open-skill and closed-skill athletes in an abstract visual working memory (VWM) task, and analysed the effects of environmental noise on response speed and memory precision. A 2 (Sport Type: open-skill vs. closed-skill) × 2 (Noise Condition: quiet vs. noise) mixed factorial design was employed, with 34 university student-athletes (17 per group) completing a color-wheel continuous report task. Closed-skill athletes showed significantly lower mean absolute error (MAE) than open-skill athletes, indicating higher memory precision, whereas open-skill athletes showed significantly shorter reaction times (RTs), indicating faster responses. These findings indicate contrasting behavioural profiles across speed and precision measures, rather than a general advantage for either sport group. Moderate-intensity white noise was associated with significantly shorter RTs, but did not significantly affect MAE, and no significant interaction between noise condition and sport type was observed. The composite behavioural efficiency score analysis showed no significant group difference, indicating that no reliable difference was detected between open-skill and closed-skill athletes in this specific derived index of combined speed-precision performance. Further analysis of the speed-precision relationship suggested that the association between RT and memory error may differ between sport groups. However, the very low R² values indicate limited explanatory power, and these trends should be interpreted cautiously and require replication. Overall, the findings support a configuration-based account in which open- and closed-skill sport backgrounds are associated with distinct speed-precision profiles in this VWM task, consistent with task-specific rather than general cognitive adaptation.