Cognitive-motor coupling in beach volleyball: a systematic review of attention, anticipation, decision-making, and psychological-affective correlates of performance

Abstract

Beach volleyball is a physically demanding dyadic Olympic sport in which performance depends on interacting physical, technical, perceptual-cognitive, and psychological factors. This systematic review synthesised evidence on visual attention, anticipation, decision-making, cognitive load, and psychological-affective states in beach volleyball. Following PRISMA 2020 guidance, Scopus, PubMed, and ScienceDirect were searched during the review period; the database search reported in the manuscript yielded 982 records, of which 16 duplicates were removed and 966 were screened. Sixty-four reports were sought for full-text assessment, 59 were assessed for eligibility, and 22 studies met the prespecified inclusion criteria and entered the qualitative synthesis. Eligibility was structured using PICOS: beach volleyball participants or expertise comparators; perceptual-cognitive and/or psychological-affective constructs; performance- or expertise-related outcomes; and empirical peer-reviewed designs. Study quality was appraised with a transparent four-domain FICO rubric (Focus, Information, Context, Outcome), with scores of 7–8 classified as high quality and 5–6 as moderate; 19 of 22 studies were rated high quality and the median score was 7/8. The synthesis identified three interconnected themes: action-coupled attention and anticipation, cue- and heuristic-based decision-making under cognitive load, and psychological-affective regulation. Explicit participant samples ranged from 1 to 82 in studies reporting participant counts, while some studies used match-level datasets. Evidence was geographically concentrated: 8 studies were attributed to Germany and 8 to Brazil, with 3 from Estonia, 2 from Switzerland, and 1 from the Netherlands. The heterogeneity of designs and outcomes precluded quantitative meta-analysis. Overall, the evidence supports a cognitive-motor model in which perceptual expertise, decision processes, mental fatigue, and affective states jointly shape performance.