‘Sandbagging’: When Competition Outweighs Health
With the rise in the public eye of conditions such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is a progressive degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive head trauma, as well as the high prevalence of concussions and CTE in contact sport athletes, we can no longer ignore the very real and very detrimental impact of brain trauma on cognitive functioning. Thankfully, most (if not all) professional and varsity sport leagues require baseline testing of cognitive ability during their preseason. Baseline tests include an assessment of an athlete’s balance and cognitive function (i.e. learning and memory ability, attentional skills, and problem solving ability), and a search for pre-existing concussion symptoms. These baseline results are then used as a comparison point to accurately assess for concussion symptoms if a player is to experience a head injury at a later date.
However, a growing problem in relation to these baseline tests is that athletes are attempting to ‘sandbag’ their results. ‘Sandbagging’ is another term used to describe the act of test malingering. More specifically, it involves intentionally under-performing during a testing process in order to gain some sort of advantage at a later period of time. In this case, athletes lowball their baseline concussion test results so that they can return to play more quickly if they are to receive a concussion during their season. For example, an athlete might attempt to sandbag the word memory learning portion of their baseline assessment by answering every fourth answer incorrectly (Erdal 2012). As a result, their test score would be much lower, without setting off the test’s “red-flag” indicators for overly low scores (normally set at two standard deviations from the mean).
Unfortunately, there is evidence that to do this, if not easy, is quite possible. Erdal (2012) examined the ability of varsity athletes to sandbag their baseline test results. She found that the athletes’ “baseline scores were significantly better than experimental scores on all variables [which suggests] that participants can in fact score lower on baseline tests when instructed to do so”. In addition, anecdotal evidence from high-profile professional athletes such as Peyton Manning, as well as from athletes on varsity teams here at McGill, suggests that these tests are sandbagged with not only relative ease but also relatively high frequency…
For high-performing athletes, the motivation is clear. They want to be able to play the sport that they love, and they want to insure that their team wins. In addition to internal pressure, external pressure to perform (even if unintentional) comes from coaches and other teammates who want their star player on the field. Unfortunately, the very real damage caused by traumatic brain injuries is often forgotten in the spirit of competition.
Even if it’s challenging to effectively sandbag baseline concussion testing, the enticement to do so is clearly there, especially in high-level athletics. It exists enough so to warrant a serious inquiry in to how to improve this method of testing, so as to avoid future brain injuries and enduring conditions, such as CTE. Perhaps this will require modification of the testing method itself. Instead of using the current method, which picks out inconsistencies or “red flags” at two standard deviations from the mean (and is clearly failing to pick up on below threshold malingering), baseline testing could be modified so that correct responses to questions are less clear and therefore more challenging to incorrectly answer.
However it is done, this is a testing issue that morally should not be ignored, as enduring brain injury has the capability to completely alter an individual’s life course, and almost always this alteration is for the worse.
Isabel Sadowski 260503406
References
Boston University CTE Center. What is CTE?. Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/cte/about/what-is-cte/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015, February 16). Brain injury basics: FAQ’s about baseline testing. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/headsup/basics/baseline_testing.html
Erdal, K. (2012). Neuropsychological testing for sports-related concussion: How athletes can sandbag their baseline testing without detection. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 27(5): 473–479.
Pennington, B. (2013, May 5). Flubbing a Baseline Test on Purpose Is Often Futile. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/sports/sandbagging-first-concussion-test-probably-wont-help-later.html?_r=0
