Investigating the effect of Neurofeedback Training on the accuracy and Concentration of professional chess players

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of neurofeedback training on the accuracy and concentration of professional chess players. The present study was a semi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group. The statistical population of the research included all male and female chess athletes in Tabriz city in 2016 (N =120). From this population, a sample of 36 people was selected through the available sampling method and randomly assigned to three groups of 12 people (experimental, dummy, and control groups). Experimental intervention in the form of alpha enhancement protocol was implemented during 12 15-minute sessions three times a week, meanwhile, the research data were collected in two phases, pre-test and post-test, using the standard Stroop task (checking accuracy and concentration). Data analysis was done using MANCOVA in the SPSS program. The analysis of data showed that there was a significant difference between the mean of the experimental, dummy, and control groups in the post-test of the reaction time subscales (f = 17/437, p = 0.0001) and the error rate (f = 29/863, p = 0.0001). According to the results, participants in the experimental group have a lower reaction time and error rate (better performance) than the participants of the dummy and control groups.