A cognitive scientist investigated whether professional esports athletes have superior dynamic multi-object tracking abilities compared to casual gamers. A matched pairs design was used, involving 16 professional esports athletes and 16 casual gamers. The participants were matched on age and baseline visual acuity.
Each participant completed a computerized tracking task where they had to monitor four moving target spheres among eight identical distractor spheres for 10 seconds. The percentage accuracy of target identification was recorded. The researcher found that professional esports athletes achieved a significantly higher tracking accuracy than the casual gamers.
Outline one advantage of using a matched pairs design in this study.
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