Mental effort (intensity of attention) in elite sports has remained a debated topic and a challenging phenomenon to measure. Thus, a quasi-ecological laboratory study was conducted to investigate mental effort in elite rowers as compared with a group of nonelites. Findings suggest that eye-tracking measures-specifically, blink rates and pupil size-can serve as valid indicators of mental effort in physically demanding sport tasks. Furthermore, findings contradict the notion that elite athletes spend less cognitive effort than their lower-level peers. Specifically, elites displayed similar levels of self-reported effort and performance decrement with increasing mental load and significantly more mental effort overall as measured by pupil-size increase (relative to baseline) during rowing trials as compared with the nonelites in the sample. Future studies on eye tracking in sports may include investigations of mental effort in addition to selective attention during physically demanding tasks.

The current motor literature suggests that extraneous cognitive load may affect performance and kinematics in a primary motor task. A common response to increased cognitive demand, as observed in past studies, might be to reduce movement complexity and revert to previously learned movement patterns, in line with the progression-regression hypothesis. However, according to several accounts of automaticity, motor experts should be able to cope with dual task demands without detriment to their performance and kinematics. To test this, we conducted an experiment asking elite and non-elite rowers to use a rowing ergometer under conditions of varying task load. We employed single-task conditions with low cognitive load (i.e., rowing only) and dual-task conditions with high cognitive load (i.e., rowing and solving arithmetic problems). The results of the cognitive load manipulations were mostly in line with our hypotheses. Overall, participants reduced movement complexity, for example by reverting towards tighter coupling of kinematic events, in their dual-task performance as compared to single-task performance. The between-group kinematic differences were less clear. In contradiction to our hypotheses, we found no significant interaction between skill level and cognitive load, suggesting that the rowers' kinematics were affected by cognitive load irrespective of skill level. Overall, our findings contradict several past findings and automaticity theories, and suggest that attentional resources are required for optimal sports performance.

Background: Past findings of an impact of cognitive impairment on awareness of olfactory dysfunction, and high prevalence of age-associated cognitive impairment motivated the present study of whether middle-aged and elderly adults are unaware of an olfactory dysfunction despite being carefully screened for cognitive impairment. Methodology: The sample included 203 Norwegian participants, aged 46-79 years, 134 women and 69 men, who underwent comprehensive neuropsychological assessment for screening of cognitive impairment. Subjective assessment of olfactory function ("How would you estimate your sense of smell?") was compared with outcome on objective assessment of olfactory function with the Scandinavian Odor Identification Test, which in the present study was shown to be valid for use on Norwegian populations. Results: We found that 79% of this cognitively healthy sample with objectively assessed olfactory dysfunction reported normal olfactory function (57% of functionally anosmics reported normal function). In contrast, only 9% with objectively assessed normal olfactory function reported olfactory dysfunction. Conclusion: A large proportion of cognitively well-functioning middle-aged and elderly adults with an olfactory dysfunction are unaware of their dysfunction. The ENT physician who suspects that the sense of smell may be compromised should, in addition to an anamnesis, assess the patient`s olfactory function objectively.