Effects of overt self-­talk on team partners’ other-efficacy and performance in a golf putting task

Introduction According to Lent and Lopez’ (2002) tripartite view of efficacy beliefs, members of a team form beliefs about the efficacy of their team partners. This other-efficacy belief can influence individual performance as shown by Dunlop, Beatty, and Beauchamp (2011) in their experimental study using manipulated performance feedback to alter other-efficacy beliefs. Participants holding favorable other-efficacy beliefs outperformed those with lower other--‐efficacy beliefs. Antecedents of such other-efficacy beliefs are amongst others perceptions regarding motivation and psychological factors of the partner (Jackson, Knapp, & Beauchamp, 2008). Overt self-talk could be interpreted as the manifestation of such motivational or psychological factors. In line with this assumption, in an experimental study using dubbed videos of the same segment of a tennis match, Van Raalte, Brewer, Cornelius, and Petitpas (2006) found that players were perceived more favorably (e.g., more concentrated, and of higher ability levels) when shown with dubbed positive self-talk as compared to dubbed negative or no dubbed self--‐talk. Objectives The aim of the study was to examine the possible effects of a confederate’s overt self-talk on participants’ other-efficacy beliefs and performance in a team setting. Method In a laboratory experiment (between-subjects, pre-post-test design, matched by pretest performance) 89 undergraduate students (female = 35, M = 20.81 years, SD = 2.34) participated in a golf putting task together with a confederate (same gender groups). Depending on the experimental condition (positive, negative, or no self-talk), the confederate commented his or her putts according to a self-talk script. Bogus performance feedback assured that the performance of the confederate was held constant. Performance was measured as the distance to the center of the target, other-efficacy by a questionnaire. Results The data collection has just finished and the results of repeated measures analyses of variance will be presented and discussed at the congress. We expect to find higher other-efficacy beliefs and better individual performance in the positive self-talk condition. References Dunlop, W.L., Beatty, D.J., & Beauchamp, M.R. (2011). Examining the influence of other-efficacy and self-efficacy on personal performance. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 33, 586-593. Jackson, B., Knapp, P., & Beauchamp, M.R. (2008). Origins and consequences of tripartite efficacy beliefs within elite athlete dyads. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 30, 512-540. Lent, R.W., & Lopez, F.G. (2002). Cognitive ties that bind: A tripartite view of efficacy beliefs in growth--‐promoting relationships. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 21, 256-286. Van Raalte, J.L., Brewer, B.W, Cornelius, A.E., & Petitpas, A.J. (2006). Self-presentational effects of self-talk on perceptions of tennis players. Hellenic Journal of Psychology, 3, 134-149.

The quiet eye and tasks demands: Do tougher shots need a quieter eye?

The Quiet Eye (QE; Vickers 1996) has been shown to underpin successful performance, differentiating both expertise (inter-individual) and proficiency (intra-individual), with experts and successful attempts characterised by longer QE durations. The QE is proposed to reflect the time needed to organise and fine tune the parameters of movement (e.g. force and direction). In order to examine this prediction and build upon previous research we experimentally manipulated the difficulty of a golf putting task; we hypothesised that if the QE is related to motor programming then a more difficult task should be associated with longer QE durations. 33 golfers (M age= 21.16, SD= 3.98) with an average handicap of 6.5 (SD= 6.02) performed putts in 4 conditions of increasing difficulty. We manipulated the length of the golf putt (short-4ft, long-8ft) and the contact point of the putter head (large-1.7cm, small-0.5cm,) giving increasingly difficult putting conditions of short-large [1], short-small [2], long-large [3] and long-small [4]. We measured performance (radial error from hole in cm) and QE (in ms) for 10 putts in each condition. A repeated measures ANOVA was performed on the performance and QE data. The performance data suggest that we were successful in increasing the difficulty of the task (F (3,93) = 26.46. p = .000), with the best performance in condition [1] (8.57cm), followed by [2] (9.10cm) followed by [3] (16.11cm) and finally the worst performance was in condition [4] (23.40cm). The QE data suggest that, in keeping with our hypothesis, the QE was lengthened as task difficulty increased (F (3,87) = 11.91, p = .043). The QE was shortest in condition [1] (1787.85ms) and increased to condition [2] (1939.78ms) and condition [3] (2076.51ms), with the longest QE in condition [4] (2164.08ms). More detailed analysis of the QE reveal that it was the proportion of the QE that occurred before movement initiation (pre-QE) which increased with shot difficulty, rather than the proportion that occurred during the swing (Online-QE; see Vine et al., 2013). Results support the notion that more complex tasks are associated with a longer QE duration, specifically participants appear to spend longer fixating the target prior to movement. This likely reflects the time needed to process visual information gathered in a pre-performance routine, to inhibit external distraction, and to pre-programme the increasingly difficult parameters of the movement. Vickers, J.N. (1996). Visual control when aiming at a far target. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 22, 342-354. Vine, S.J. et al. (2013). Quiet eye and choking: Online control breaks down at the point of performance failure. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 45, 1988-1994.

On the interaction of attentional focus and gaze: The quiet eye inhibits focus-related performance decrements

To date, despite a large body of evidence in favor of the advantage of an effect-related focus of attention compared with a movement-related focus of attention in motor control and learning, the role of vision in this context remains unclear. Therefore, in a golf-putting study, the relation between attentional focus and gaze behavior (in particular, quiet eye, or QE) was investigated. First, the advantage of an effect-related focus, as well as of a long QE duration, could be replicated. Furthermore, in the online-demanding task of golf putting, high performance was associated with later QE offsets. Most decisively, an interaction between attentional focus and gaze behavior was revealed in such a way that the efficiency of the QE selectively manifested under movement-related focus instructions. As these findings suggest neither additive effects nor a causal chain, an alternative hypothesis is introduced explaining positive QE effects by the inhibition of not-to-be parameterized movement variants.

Interpersonale Konsequenzen von offenen Selbstgesprächen in Dyaden im Sport

In der sportpsychologischen Forschung werden sowohl offene als auch verdeckte Selbstgespräche mehrheitlich als rein intrapersonale Phänomene betrachtet und sowohl deren Antezedenzien als auch Konsequenzen nur auf die mit sich selbst sprechende Person bezogen untersucht. Erste laborexperimentelle Studien, die die Effekte von offenen Selbstgesprächen auf die Eindrucksbildung (Graf, Lier & Seiler, 2012; Van Raalte, Brewer, Cornelius & Petitpas, 2006) und die individuelle Leistung (Gould & Weiss, 1981) eines Beobachters nachweisen konnten und Aussagen verschiedener Tennisspieler (Rimmer, Greenlees, Graydon, Thelwell & Buscombe, 2008), dass sie die offene Selbstgespräche der Gegner bei der Bildung eines ersten Eindrucks verwenden würden, deuten jedoch auf die Bedeutsamkeit von interpersonalen Konsequenzen von offenen Selbstgesprächen hin. Um das Verständnis für die interpersonalen Konsequenzen von offenen Selbstgesprächen im Sport zu vertiefen, wurden zwei Studien mit unterschiedlicher Methodik durchgeführt. In einer qualitativen Feldstudie wurden mit 13 Badmintonspielern im Anschluss an ihr Badminton Herren-Doppel Selbstkonfrontationsinterviews durchgeführt, um die Wahrnehmungsergebnisse nach offenen, während eines realen Wettkampfes geäusserten Selbstgesprächen zu untersuchen. Die wahrgenommenen positiven, negativen und motivierenden Selbstgespräche führten zu Zuschreibungen von mentalen Zuständen und Kognitionen und vereinzelt zur Einschätzung des episodischen Leistungsvermögens. Weiter lösten die Selbstgespräche verschiedene affektive Reaktionen und Erwartungsreaktionen aus, deren mögliche Konsequenzen für den weiteren Spielverlauf diskutiert werden. Um einzelne Resultate aus dieser ersten Studie eingehender zu analysieren (zugeschriebene Kompetenz und stellvertretende Valenzeinschätzung; Birrer & Seiler, 2008), und zur Untersuchung der Effekte der offenen Selbstgespräche auf die individuelle Leistung eines Teampartners wurde eine zweite, laborexperimentelle Studie durchgeführt. Zur Herstellung der drei experimentellen Bedingungen kam ein gleichgeschlechtlicher Konfident zum Einsatz, der als vermeintlicher Teampartner fungierte und der während der Golf-Putt-Aufgabe als Reaktion auf die eigenen Putts positive, negative oder keine Selbstgespräche führte. Bezogen auf die zugeschriebene Kompetenz zeigte sich kein allgemeiner, sondern ein von der Valenz der Probanden bedingter Effekt der negativen Selbstgespräche: War den Probanden die Aufgabe wichtig, führten negative Selbstgespräche zur Zuschreibung einer tiefen Kompetenz. Weiter lösten sowohl positive als auch negative Selbstgespräche die Einschätzung aus, dass dem Partner die Aufgabe wichtig ist. Keine Effekte hatten die Selbstgespräche auf die individuelle Leistung der Probanden. Explorativ durchgeführte Nachanalysen deuten jedoch darauf hin, dass sich die Selbstgespräche des Partners womöglich nach einer gewissen Zeit auf die individuelle Leistung der wahrnehmenden Person auswirken könnten, weshalb methodische Anpassungen diskutiert werden, mit Hilfe derer der Effekt der Selbstgespräche auf die Leistung gesteigert werden könnte. Neben den hypothesenprüfenden Tests ermittelten verschiedene Post-Hoc-Analysen aufschlussreiche Resulate (z.B. zu affektiven Reaktionen). Die Ergebnisse der beiden Studien bringen klar zum Ausdruck, dass die interpersonale Perspektive bei der Erforschung der Effekte von offenen Selbstgesprächen bedeutsame Erkenntnisse für Theorie und Praxis liefern kann.

Reduced foveal vision enhances peripheral monitoring and peripheral event detection

Introduction: Although it seems plausible that sports performance relies on high-acuity foveal vision, it could be empirically shown that myoptic blur (up to +2 diopters) does not harm performance in sport tasks that require foveal information pick-up like golf putting (Bulson, Ciuffreda, & Hung, 2008). How myoptic blur affects peripheral performance is yet unknown. Attention might be less needed for processing visual cues foveally and lead to better performance because peripheral cues are better processed as a function of reduced foveal vision, which will be tested in the current experiment. Methods: 18 sport science students with self-reported myopia volunteered as participants, all of them regularly wearing contact lenses. Exclusion criteria comprised visual correction other than myopic, correction of astigmatism and use of contact lenses out of Swiss delivery area. For each of the participants, three pairs of additional contact lenses (besides their regular lenses; used in the “plano” condition) were manufactured with an individual overcorrection to a retinal defocus of +1 to +3 diopters (referred to as “+1.00 D”, “+2.00 D”, and “+3.00 D” condition, respectively). Gaze data were acquired while participants had to perform a multiple object tracking (MOT) task that required to track 4 out of 10 moving stimuli. In addition, in 66.7 % of all trials, one of the 4 targets suddenly stopped during the motion phase for a period of 0.5 s. Stimuli moved in front of a picture of a sports hall to allow for foveal processing. Due to the directional hypotheses, the level of significance for one-tailed tests on differences was set at α = .05 and posteriori effect sizes were computed as partial eta squares (ηρ2). Results: Due to problems with the gaze-data collection, 3 participants had to be excluded from further analyses. The expectation of a centroid strategy was confirmed because gaze was closer to the centroid than the target (all p < .01). In comparison to the plano baseline, participants more often recalled all 4 targets under defocus conditions, F(1,14) = 26.13, p < .01, ηρ2 = .65. The three defocus conditions differed significantly, F(2,28) = 2.56, p = .05, ηρ2 = .16, with a higher accuracy as a function of a defocus increase and significant contrasts between conditions +1.00 D and +2.00 D (p = .03) and +1.00 D and +3.00 D (p = .03). For stop trials, significant differences could neither be found between plano baseline and defocus conditions, F(1,14) = .19, p = .67, ηρ2 = .01, nor between the three defocus conditions, F(2,28) = 1.09, p = .18, ηρ2 = .07. Participants reacted faster in “4 correct+button” trials under defocus than under plano-baseline conditions, F(1,14) = 10.77, p < .01, ηρ2 = .44. The defocus conditions differed significantly, F(2,28) = 6.16, p < .01, ηρ2 = .31, with shorter response times as a function of a defocus increase and significant contrasts between +1.00 D and +2.00 D (p = .01) and +1.00 D and +3.00 D (p < .01). Discussion: The results show that gaze behaviour in MOT is not affected to a relevant degree by a visual overcorrection up to +3 diopters. Hence, it can be taken for granted that peripheral event detection was investigated in the present study. This overcorrection, however, does not harm the capability to peripherally track objects. Moreover, if an event has to be detected peripherally, neither response accuracy nor response time is negatively affected. Findings could claim considerable relevance for all sport situations in which peripheral vision is required which now needs applied studies on this topic. References: Bulson, R. C., Ciuffreda, K. J., & Hung, G. K. (2008). The effect of retinal defocus on golf putting. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics, 28, 334-344.