Evaluating Elite Mountaineers' Levels of Attention at Different Altitudes with the D2 Attention Test

The purpose of this study was to investigate theattention performances of the elite-level mountaineers at different altitudes with the help of the D2 test that measured attention. In total 29 people (22 male and 7 female professional athletes specialized in the sports of mountaineering, trekking, skiing, technical climbing, scuba diving), who climbed the Mount Ararat participated in this study. Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance was used to examine the difference between (Xage = 49,06, Ss = 12.29; Xsport age = 9.41, Ss = 5.65;)d2 Test scores in the applications were carried out at different intervals and the difference between applications for all scores of the D2 test was found (p<0.05). When mean scores were scrutinized, it was observed that there was an increase in the scores of selective attention and sustained attention [TN (Total Number of Items), CP (Concentration Performance)] and error scores [Total Number of Errors (E),(E)] after repeated measures. In conclusion, it could be concluded 2 that the level of attention was decreased in higher altitudes; after the peak, lack of motivation was also added to the negative factors increasing the error rate; fatigue. Temporary brain damage (due to the high altitude) was also the reasons of differentiation of attention performances at different altitudes. The D2 attention test was one of the tests that has been used to evaluate visually focused attention performance of the athletes.