When suppressor effects may reflect multicollinearity artifacts: a cautionary tale from multiple object tracking and clay pigeon shooting performance
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Objective To evaluate whether multiple object tracking (MOT) predicts clay pigeon shooting performance, and to illustrate how multicollinearity between demographic covariates can mimic suppressor effects. Methods Twenty shooters completed a MOT task (2–6 targets). Zero-order and partial correlations, hierarchical regression, LOOCV, VIF diagnostics, and power analysis were computed. Two specifications were compared: Specification A (age + training years, multicollinear) and Specification B (age only, VIF < 2.5). Results Age and training years were near-perfectly correlated (r = 0.928). Under Specification A r = 0.928 ; VIF = 11.7 , MOT-5 and MOT-6 appeared as nominally significant partial correlates (r_partial ≈ 0.49, p < 0.03, uncorrected), a classical suppression pattern. Under Specification B, these effects attenuated to non-significance ( p > 0.13). The training coefficient reversed sign (B = −2.12 despite r = +0.65), consistent with multicollinearity distortion. Power analysis indicated N ≈ 68 would be required to detect the residual effect (f 2 = 0.15), though this estimate is illustrative given the small sample. AUC = 0.660 f 2 = 0.12. Conclusion The apparent suppressor effect is consistent with multicollinearity between age and training years rather than genuine prediction, though the small sample ( N = 20) precludes definitive conclusions. Routine VIF, bootstrap stability checks, and power analysis are recommended to avoid artifacts in small-sample sports cognition research.
Source: Frontiers in Psychology
Authors: Kai Jin, Pingze Gao, Shuo Han, Xupeng Zhang
Language: English
Subfield: Statistics and Probability
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7212469776