The Effects of Avoiding Instructions Under Pressure: An Examination of the Volleyball Serving Task

Orienteering Is More than Just Running! Acute Effect of Competitive Pressure on Autonomic Cardiac Activity among Elite Orienteering Athletes

Background and Objectives: Orienteering is a sport characterized by high physical exertion and intense mental demands, which increase susceptibility to errors. Understanding the impact of such errors on psychophysiological responses, particularly on heart rate variability (HRV), is essential. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between psychophysiological indicators and checkpoint errors made by elite orienteers during official competition. Materials and Methods: Fifty-three orienteers participated in this study, and their performance was continuously monitored and recorded by using a global positioning system (GPS) and HRV data. Errors made during the orienteering events were identified and analyzed. HRV data were examined in three temporal segments: before, during, and after the identified and standardized errors. Results: The analyses indicated that errors significantly impacted HRV indices across multiple domains: the time domain, frequency domain, and nonlinear domain. Additionally, a significant effect of sex on the normalized the root mean square of successive differences (r-MSSD) before and after the error was observed. Conclusions: The findings of this study underscore the significant impact of errors made by orienteers on cardiovascular responses, as evidenced by measurable alterations in HRV metrics. Cardiovascular activity, represented by the HRV, can provide useful information for coaches and sport psychologists to adopt effective training programs for athletes.

Ironic processes of concentration and suppression under pressure: A study on rifle shooting in Norwegian elite biathletes

In rifle shooting, suppressing unwanted thoughts can backfire in one's performance, causing athletes to behave contrary to their desired intention and further deteriorate their performance.

PURPOSE

This study examined how priming attentional and negative cues affected participants' shooting performances toward ironic error targets under cognitive load conditions in Stroop task across two experiments.

METHODS

Semi-elite biathletes (Experiment 1, n = 10; Experiment 2, n = 9) participated in the study. The study used a within-subject quasi-experimental design, particularly a one-way repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance and a 2 × 2 fully repeated measures analysis of variance, to determine the participants' hit rates and shooting response times (RTs). In both experiments, the participants completed the reverse-Stroop-based target shooting performance under low- and high-cognitive load conditions while receiving frequent priming attentional and negative cues.

RESULTS

The findings from Experiment 1 suggest that regulating repetitive priming attentional thoughts is efficacious in mitigating the likelihood of ironic performance errors and interference effects. The results of Experiment 2 show that repetitive priming negative cues resulted in negligible ironic error hit rates and slower RTs in target hits under high-cognitive load conditions. The Bayesian analyses provided evidence supporting the null hypotheses.

CONCLUSION

Trying to control repetitive priming attentional and negative thoughts reduces ironic performance errors to a similar degree under cognitive load conditions among biathletes, regardless of interference effects. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of suppressing task-relevant negative instructions in reducing the likelihood of ironic performance errors under pressure.

The Impact of Hemispheric Activity Priming on Choking Under Pressure in Badminton Tasks: A Study of Three Fundamental Skills

Choking under pressure occurs when an individual experiences a decrease in performance despite their efforts to perform well. The self-focus approach suggests that pressure increases conscious attention on the performance process, disrupting the automatic or overlearned nature of execution. Hemispheric asymmetries in the brain and skilled performance indicate that left-hemispheric activity decreases, while right-hemispheric activity enhances. Previous studies have attempted to prevent choking by inhibiting the left hemisphere or enhancing the right hemisphere's activity. This study examined whether increased hemispheric activity priming can extenuate motor skill failure under pressure in badminton tasks. The study involved 32 right-handed college students who completed five conditions in pressure-free blocks versus choking under-pressure blocks with priming intervention. Results showed a significant improvement in motor learning from pre- to post-tests, but participants still choked under pressure during skill execution. Furthermore, the priming strategy (hand squeezing) did not alleviate the pressure to benefit performance. The study provides evidence of performance decrements under pressure conditions, and the priming strategy did not alleviate choking.