COMPARISON OF MENTAL ROTATION AND REACTION TIME PERFORMANCES IN DEAF ATHLETES AND NON-ATHLETES

The coordination of perceptual-cognitive and motor processes is one of the main components determining sports performance. However, many factors affect these components, such as disability, gender, doing sport, etc. The aim of this study is to determine the mental rotation and reaction time performance of deaf athletes and non-athletes in terms of doing sport and gender. 42 heavy hearing impaired (90+ dB) students, 22 males, and 20 females, participated in the study. 22 of the participants were deaf basketball athletes, and 20 were deaf non-athletes. The participants' mental rotation and reaction time performance measurement tests were carried out with a computer-based software MP36 (Biopac System, USA). Independent Samples T-test and (multivariate) Manova tests were performed to evaluate the data. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups, neither mental rotation nor reaction time variables, in terms of doing sport. However, there were statistically significant differences between the groups in both mental rotation and reaction time variables regarding gender and doing sport. As a result, it was found that male athletes are better than women who are not athletes in some of the mental rotation and reaction time variables. Another important result was no significant difference in both mental rotation and reaction time variables between deaf male non-athletes and female non-athletes. As a result, it is suggested that doing sports improves both the mental rotation and reaction time of deaf male athletes.