Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology最新文献

The relationship between muscle strength and cognition is widely studied in older adults; however, understanding this association at younger ages may help detect markers of early cognitive changes and inform future interventions. Accordingly, we aimed to identify relationships between handgrip, whole-body, upper body, and lower body strength and cognitive functions. A total of 112 adults (aged 18-50 years) completed comprehensive measures of muscle strength, aerobic capacity, body composition, and cognitive function. Hierarchical linear regressions revealed that individuals with stronger handgrip had better mental rotation performance (standardized β = 0.39); those with greater upper body strength had superior recognition (standardized β = 0.52) and pattern separation abilities (standardized β = 0.39), but whole- and lower body strength were not associated. Results demonstrate the unique relationship between upper body strength and aspects of cognitive function, in addition to differential associations of upper body and handgrip strength with encoding, retrieval, and spatial skills. The current findings establish an association between strength and cognitive function earlier than previously thought.

The study provides a qualitative exploration of how soccer players reporting perfectionism navigate challenges in talent pathways. Eighteen players (10 females, eight males, Mage = 16.17 years, SD = 3.47) from talent pathways with higher levels of perfectionism and perfectionistic cognitions (1SD above the mean of samples from previous studies) participated in semistructured one-to-one interviews. Using semantic thematic analysis, seven themes were identified: cycles of anxiety, sadness at being a substitute, self-criticism and hopelessness during slumps, ruminating on mistakes, worthless when injured, shame in success and intolerance of defeat, and psychological distress. Participants experienced heightened anxiety, especially when substituted, and responded to poor performance, mistakes, and injuries with self-criticism and unhelpful emotions. Postmatch, they ruminated over both success and defeat, with some reporting extreme psychological difficulties. The findings highlight how aspiring soccer players perceived perfectionism as a barrier to overcoming challenges, hindering both their performance and well-being.

Left-hand contractions (LHCs) are considered a useful technique to facilitate athletic performance under pressure by inhibiting conscious motor control through the induction of hemispheric brain asymmetry. However, the underlying mechanisms of LHCs remain unclear. Two experiments were conducted: novice golfers (30 participants) and dart players (40 participants) completed tasks while their cortical, muscle, and cardiac activities and kinematics were recorded. Performance was measured as the distance from the target. In Study 1 (golfers), no differences in performance were observed; however, LHCs reduced the electromyography signals in the left forearm during golf putting. In Study 2 (dart players), performance did not differ between study groups. Although right-dominant hemispheric asymmetry was induced by LHCs, it may not have facilitated golf-putting and dart-throwing performances. As LHCs induced asymmetry only around the central and parietal sites, we cast doubt on the idea that LHCs inhibit the conscious processing of movements due to left-temporal activation.

Athletes' overall well-being (WB) often intertwines with their sport WB and vice versa. While holistic WB measures have been explored in nonsport contexts, researchers aim to understand competitive athletes' WB using psychometrically rigorous assessments. Consequently, two interrelated studies were conducted to develop and validate companion instruments: (a) the Well-Being in Sport Questionnaire to gauge outcome-related sport WB and (b) the Sport Well-Being Enhancement Profile to identify strategies for enhancing sport WB. Following contemporary instrument development recommendations, including item development, content, and factor validity, the instruments underwent exploratory factor analysis, exploratory structural covariance modeling, confirmatory factor analysis, and measurement invariance. By utilizing the Well-Being in Sport Questionnaire and Sport Well-Being Enhancement Profile, coaches, athletes, and practitioners can comprehensively understand athletes' WB, facilitating strategies for daily enhancement alongside peak sport performance.

The study analyzed the gaze behavior and decision-making performance of 20 soccer assistant referees while judging offside events. Specifically, gaze behaviors, gaze entropy, and estimated quiet eye (eQE; defined as the last fixation prior to the attacker's ball pass) characteristics (i.e., location, onset, offset, and duration) were analyzed in relation to decision-making accuracy. Although a significant number of fixations were observed on the offside line, the highest viewing time corresponded to the ball carrier. The gaze behavior indicated a high distribution of fixations, as evidenced by high stationary gaze entropy (>90%). The assistant referees also distinguished offside from onside positions above chance. However, they displayed nonprolonged eQE on the offside line. As a result, no significant relationships were found between the eQE characteristics and decision-making accuracy. The study concludes that the absence of more functional gaze behaviors, specifically with longer eQE focused on the offside line, impaired the decision-making accuracy of nonexpert assistant referees in soccer.

Quiet eye (QE), the visual fixation on a target before initiation of a critical action, is associated with improved performance. While QE is trainable, it is unclear whether QE can directly predict performance, which has implications for training interventions. This study predicted basketball shot outcome (make or miss) from visuomotor control variables using a decision tree classification approach. Twelve basketball athletes completed 200 shots from six on-court locations while wearing mobile eye-tracking glasses. Training and testing data sets were used for modeling eight predictors (shot location, arm extension time, and absolute and relative QE onset, offset, and duration) via standard and conditional inference decision trees and random forests. On average, the trees predicted over 66% of makes and over 50% of misses. The main predictor, relative QE duration, indicated success for durations over 18.4% (range: 14.5%-22.0%). Training to prolong QE duration beyond 18% may enhance shot success.

We investigated the role of saccades and microsaccades when different levels of basketball players were engaged in an ecological free-throw condition. All participants made more correct than incorrect shoots, with a movement time initiation shorter in amateurs than in near-expert groups. Near-experts had more stable gaze fixation than amateurs, with higher microsaccade rate and duration and lower peak velocity. Amateurs showed higher saccade rate, peak velocity, and amplitude than near-experts. The temporal sequence of near-experts' microsaccade rate increased after the saccade peak; on the contrary, in amateurs, the saccade peak is shown after the decrement in microsaccade rates. The spatiotemporal characteristics of microsaccades and saccades may reflect an optimal sampling method by which the brain discretely acquires visual information and can differentiate between participants who use a fixation before the critical movement time and participants who move their eyes to catch more visual cues to make decisions.