Peer-reviewed article

Perceptual-cognitive training in basketball: effects on cognitive-motor performance, decision-making, and sport-specific transfer across youth players.

Mingbang Li, Yue Luo, Junlin Li, Yang Zeng · 23 Sept 2026

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To systematically identify, critically appraise, and synthesize basketball-specific perceptual-cognitive training interventions in pediatrics and youth players and examine their effects on decision-making, attentional control, cognitive-motor performance, and transfer to sport-specific or on-court performance. The review specifically focused on youth-dominant basketball samples to characterize the effects of these interventions during a developmental period relevant to adolescent sport participation. METHODS: Following PRISMA 2020, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science Core Collection were searched. Randomized and non-randomized intervention studies involving pediatrics and youth basketball players were eligible. Two authors independently screened records, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. Findings were synthesized narratively. RESULTS: Fourteen eligible reports representing 11 unique participant cohorts were included from 973 records. Interventions primarily targeted attentional/gaze control, cue utilization/anticipation, decision-making/response selection, or executive-control/cognitive-motor integration. The most consistent favorable effects were observed for cognitive-motor interventions, with moderate-to-large interaction effects reported for several dribbling, sprint, change-of-direction, and selected response-control outcomes. Attentional/gaze-control evidence was limited to one small non-randomized cohort, findings for cue-utilization and anticipation training were mixed, and decision-making/response-selection evidence remained limited to two heterogeneous independent cohorts. Evidence was concentrated on trained-task and near-transfer outcomes; retention, representative game-based transfer, and competitive-match transfer remained uncommon and did not show consistent intervention-specific benefits. CONCLUSIONS: Basketball perceptual-cognitive training may improve proximal cognitive-motor and sport-performance outcomes in youth and pediatric players, particularly when executive-control demands are integrated with basketball-relevant motor tasks. However, the current evidence does not establish generalized improvements in basketball decision-making, sustained learning, or transfer to competitive performance. It also does not support conclusions regarding age- or maturation-specific responsiveness. Larger prospectively registered trials with independent samples, longer retention periods, and representative game- and match-based outcomes are needed. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: https://osf.io, Open Science Framework, unique identifier: 4zwvt.