A review of behavioral interventions to enhance sports performance

Research on applied behavior analysis and sports performance has become an increasingly popular subject. It involves using behavioral measures to assess the utility of numerous interventions to enhance athletic performance. We identified 101 studies published since the late 1960s focusing on behavioral interventions to enhance sports performance. To determine the breadth of the current research, we identified each sport and the different interventions used to improve performance. Of the studies included in this review, research has investigated 23 interventions with 21 sports. The purpose of this paper is to review the current literature regarding what procedures have been evaluated, the results of this research, some of the limitations, and future directions of behavioral research on sports performance enhancement. In doing so, this review will allow readers to easily browse the current literature by the sport or intervention of interest.     

经颅直流电刺激技术在增强健康个体认知功能中的应用及其影响因素

经颅直流电刺激作为一种无创脑刺激技术,已在临床治疗及康复领域有广泛应用。随着研究的深入和人类对于自身认知需求的提高,近年来也有研究者开始尝试使用该技术增强健康个体的认知功能。本文从感知觉、注意、记忆、学习和复杂任务五个方面对目前经颅直流电刺激技术在健康个体认知增强领域的研究现状进行梳理和总结,讨论了机制和影响因素,以及未来面临的问题和挑战。     

Box Scores and Bottom Lines: Sports Data Can Inform Research and Practice in Organizations

In this introduction to the Special Issue on the use of sports data to inform research and practice in organizations, we first outline the state of research in this flourishing area to provide the need for this Special Issue. We note a similarity in the study of organizations and the study of sports and, in turn, how studies of sports can readily be compared to and applied to the study and practice of work in organizations. Next, we describe each of the six articles in this Special Issue, particularly noting that the articles sampled data from a variety of sporting domains, ranging from the National Football League to Olympic ice hockey. Topics of the studies included travel stress on team performance; pay standing and task performance; job hopping, organizational change, and performance of new employees; team work experience and performance; the effect of leadership transitions and changes to performance and human capital quality; and the effects of star performers and core team members. We then outline how these studies fit with the call for this Special Issue and provide common themes, such as methodological sophistication and novel analyses and the opportunity for sports data to provide both academic and practitioner audiences an awareness of evidence-based approaches to studies of work. We end this introductory article by providing some challenges in using sports data to enhance the study of organizations and possible areas for future research.     

Does transcranial direct current stimulation during writing alleviate upper limb freezing in people with Parkinson’s disease? A pilot study

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the primary motor cortex (M1) can boost motor performance in Parkinson’s disease (PD) when it is applied at rest. However, the potential supplementary therapeutic effect of the concurrent application of tDCS during the training of motor tasks is largely unknown. The present study examined the effects of tDCS on upper limb motor blocks during a freezing-provoking writing task (the funnel task) requiring up- and down-stroke movements at alternating amplitudes. Ten PD patients and 10 age-matched controls underwent two sessions of writing combined with 20 min of anodal or sham tDCS on the left M1 in a randomized cross-over design. The primary outcome was the number of upper limb freezing episodes during five trials of the funnel task on a touch-sensitive tablet. PD patients showed a significant reduction in freezing episodes during tDCS compared to sham. No effects of tDCS were found for the amplitude, variability and speed of the strokes outside the freezing episodes. However, patients who reported freezing episodes in daily life (N = 6) showed a beneficial effect of tDCS on stroke characteristics. These results indicate a subgroup-dependent variability in response to non-invasive brain stimulation applied during the performance of motor tasks in PD. This warrants future studies to examine tDCS as an adjuvant tool for training programs aimed to reduce motor deficits related to freezing.     

An acute application of transcranial random noise stimulation does not enhance motor skill acquisition or retention in a golf putting task

Transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) is a brain stimulation technique that has been shown to increase motor performance in simple motor tasks. The purpose was to determine the influence of tRNS on motor skill acquisition and retention in a complex golf putting task. Thirty-four young adults were randomly assigned to a tRNS group or a SHAM stimulation group. Each subject completed a practice session followed by a retention session. In the practice session, subjects performed golf putting trials in a baseline test block, four practice blocks, and a post test block. Twenty-four hours later subjects completed the retention test block. The golf putting task involved performing putts to a small target located 3 m away. tRNS or SHAM was applied during the practice blocks concurrently with the golf putting task. tRNS was applied over the first dorsal interosseus muscle representation area of the motor cortex for 20 min at a current strength of 2 mA. Endpoint error and endpoint variance were reduced across the both the practice blocks and the test blocks, but these reductions were not different between groups. These findings suggest that an acute application of tRNS failed to enhance skill acquisition or retention in a golf putting task.     

EPILOGUE A Commentary and Reflection on Sport Psychology in the Discipline of Sports Coaching

In this epilogue to the special issue of Journal of Applied Sport Psychology on the psychology of sports coaching, we provide a brief commentary on the field of sports coaching and some reflections on three key themes emerging from the research presented within the issue. In drawing our reflections together, we offer recommendations for the future directions of both research and practice in the area, namely: (a) coach effectiveness; (b) relationships within coaching; and (c) wider coach psychology research considerations.     

Stimulated brains and meditative minds: A systematic review on combining low intensity transcranial electrical stimulation and meditation in humans

BackgroundLow intensity transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) and meditation are two promising, yet variable, non-pharmacological interventions. Growing research is investigating combined effects of both techniques on one's cognitive, emotional, and physical health.ObjectiveThis article reviews the current research that combines tES and meditation interventions in healthy and diseased participants. The review considers the intervention parameters and their effects in a well-organized manner.MethodA systematic search for clinical and experimental published studies was conducted in the PubMed, Cochrane, and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) databases using common keywords for tES and for meditation techniques well defined by previous studies. Unpublished ongoing studies were identified with the ClinicalTrials.gov and DRKS.de clinical trial websites.Results20 published studies and 13 ongoing studies were included for qualitative analysis. 13 published articles studied patients with chronic pain, psychological disorders, cognitive impairment, and movement disorders. Anodal tDCS was the only tES technique while mindfulness meditation was the most common meditation type. Eight studies had a main group effect, with outcome improvement in the active combined intervention. However, most published studies showed improvements after at least one combined intervention with variable effects.ConclusionPairing anodal tDCS with meditation shows promising improvements of the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of daily life. Further studies are required to confirm the relevance of this combination in the clinic.     

The interactive effects of conscientiousness, work effort, and psychological climate on job performance

Historically, conscientiousness-performance relationships have been modest, suggesting the need to examine theoretically-relevant moderating variables. Based on theory and empirical research suggesting that performance variance is maximally predicted in the presence of person and situation variables, we examined the moderating potential of work effort and psychological climate on the conscientiousness-performance relationship. Data gathered from 139 predominately part-time restaurant employees revealed that conscientiousness predicted performance in the simultaneous presence of high levels of work effort and positive psychological climate. Conversely, conscientiousness had no empirical association with performance when coupled with other combinations (e.g., high-negative; low-positive; low-negative) of work effort and psychological climate. Implications for research, strengths, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation of the right Wernicke's area improves comprehension in subacute stroke patients

Previous studies have shown the appearance of right-sided language-related brain activity in right-handed patients after a stroke. Non-invasive brain stimulation such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) have been shown to modulate excitability in the brain. Moreover, rTMS and tDCS have been found to improve naming in non-fluent post-stroke aphasic patients. Here, we investigated the effect of tDCS on the comprehension of aphasic patients with subacute stroke. We hypothesized that tDCS applied to the left superior temporal gyrus (Wernicke’s area) or the right Wernicke’s area might be associated with recovery of comprehension ability in aphasic patients with subacute stroke. Participants included right-handed subacute stroke patients with global aphasia due to ischemic infarct of the left M1 or M2 middle cerebral artery. Patients were randomly divided into three groups: patients who received anodal tDCS applied to the left superior temporal gyrus, patients who received cathodal tDCS applied to the right superior temporal gyrus, and patients who received sham tDCS. All patients received conventional speech and language therapy during each period of tDCS application. The Korean-Western Aphasia Battery (K-WAB) was used to assess all patients before and after tDCS sessions. After intervention, all patients had significant improvements in aphasia quotients, spontaneous speech, and auditory verbal comprehension. However, auditory verbal comprehension improved significantly more in patients treated with a cathode, as compared to patients in the other groups. These results are consistent with the role of Wernicke’s area in language comprehension and the therapeutic effect that cathodal tDCS has on aphasia patients with subacute stroke, suggesting that tDCS may be an adjuvant treatment approach for aphasia rehabilitation therapy in patients in an early stage of stroke.     

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation may induce language switching in bilingual patients

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) may participate in the process of language switching in multilingual individuals. We present two cases of bilingual patients who experienced unexpected language switching after receiving high-frequency, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to the left DLPFC as a treatment for major depression. These preliminary findings support the role of the DLPFC in language switching in polyglots and highlight the potential value of rTMS for non-invasively investigating language function in humans. Further investigation is warranted.     

Are Vocal Pitch Changes in Response to Facial Expressions of Emotions Potential Cues of Empathy? A Preliminary Report

Previous research has demonstrated that even brief exposures to facial expressions of emotions elicit facial mimicry in receivers in the form of corresponding facial muscle movements. As well, vocal and verbal patterns of speakers converge in conversations, a type of vocal mimicry. There is also evidence of cross-modal mimicry in which emotional vocalizations elicit corresponding facial muscle activity. Further, empathic capacity has been associated with enhanced tendency towards facial mimicry as well as verbal synchrony. We investigated a type of potential cross-modal mimicry in a simulated dyadic situation. Specifically, we examined the influence of facial expressions of happy, sad, and neutral emotions on the vocal pitch of receivers, and its potential association with empathy. Results indicated that whereas both mean pitch and variability of pitch varied somewhat in the predicted directions, empathy was correlated with the difference in the variability of pitch while speaking to the sad and neutral faces. Discussion of results considers the dimensional nature of emotional vocalizations and possible future directions.     

Organizational psychology in elite sport: Its emergence,application and future

ObjectivesThe rapid development of elite sport in Europe and across the world has had far-reaching psychosocial ramifications for those operating within its sphere of influence. Whilst sport psychologists in the latter part of the 20th century largely focused on the cognitive determinates of elite performance, the findings of recent research suggest that sport psychologists in the 21st century will need to better understand the organizational influences on world-class athletes. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to discuss the emergence, application and future of organizational psychology knowledge in elite performance sport.MethodNarrative review and commentary.Results and conclusionThe review discusses the findings of six lines of inquiry that point to the salience of organizational issues in elite sport: i) factors affecting Olympic performance; ii) organizational stress in athletes, coaches and parents; iii) perceptions of roles within sports teams; iv) organizational success factors in sport and business; v) performance environments in elite sport; and vi) organizational citizenship behavior in sport. The commentary then focuses on the theoretical underpinnings and practical implementation of organizational service delivery in elite sport, and concludes by reflecting on how developments in this area have the potential to inform future practice and research relating to the psychology of elite sport.     

Motoric dominance and sporting excellence: training versus heredity

In the past two decades, laterality in sports has become clearly established. In particular, the concept of motoric dominance in sports has been a fertile area for laterality research. The literature is consistent with the view that in certain sporting skills, sporting competitors with specific motoric-dominance patterns enjoy an advantage over other competitors and are overrepresented in some sports. Two theoretical interpretations have been offered to explain this imbalance of motoric-dominance distribution among sporting individuals: hypotheses of "innate superiority" and "strategic advantage." This paper presents an overview the two hypotheses, along with relevant work so far reported and identifies directions for further empirical research. The theoretical and practical implications of research on laterality in human motor performance are discussed.     

Working memory improvement with non-invasive brain stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Recent studies have used non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques, such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), to increase dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity and, consequently, working memory (WM) performance. However, such experiments have yielded mixed results, possibly due to small sample sizes and heterogeneity of outcomes. Therefore, our aim was to perform a systematic review and meta-analyses on NIBS studies assessing the n-back task, which is a reliable index for WM. From the first data available to February 2013, we looked for sham-controlled, randomized studies that used NIBS over the DLPFC using the n-back task in PubMed/MEDLINE and other databases. Twelve studies (describing 33 experiments) matched our eligibility criteria. Active vs. sham NIBS was significantly associated with faster response times (RTs), higher percentage of correct responses and lower percentage of error responses. However, meta-regressions showed that tDCS (vs. rTMS) presented only an improvement in RT, and not in accuracy. This could have occurred in part because almost all tDCS studies employed a crossover design, possibly due to the reliable tDCS blinding. Study design was also associated with no improvement in correct responses in the active vs. sham groups. To conclude, rTMS of the DLPFC significantly improved all measures of WM performance whereas tDCS significantly improved RT, but not the percentage of correct and error responses. Mechanistic insights on the role of DLPFC in WM are further discussed, as well as how NIBS techniques could be used in neuropsychiatric samples presenting WM deficits, such as major depression, dementia and schizophrenia.     

Predicting Athletic Performance with Self- Confidence and Somatic and Cognitive Anxiety as a Function of Motor and Physiological Requirements in Six Sports

The purpose of the present study is to examine the ability of certain psychological attributes to predict performance in six National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I collegiate sports. Eighty-four athletes from the varsity sports teams of cross country running, alpine and nordic skiing, tennis, basketball, and track and field at the University of Colorado completed a questionnaire adapted from Martens (1977; Martens et al., 1983) that measured their trait levels of self-confidence (Bandura, 1977), somatic anxiety, and cognitive anxiety (Martens, 1977; Martens et al., 1983). In addition, at three to six competitions during the season, the members of the cross country running and tennis teams filled out a state measure (Martens et al., 1983) of the three attributes from one to two hours prior to the competition. Following each competition, subjective and objective ratings of performance were obtained, and, for all sports, coaches' ratings of performance and an overall seasonal team ranking were determined as seasonal performance measures. The sports were dichotomized along motor and physiological dimensions. Results indicate that all three psychological attributes were significant predictors of performance in both fine motor, anaerobic sports and gross motor, aerobic sports. Further, clear differences in these relationships emerged as a function of the dichotomization. In addition, unexpected sex differences emerged. The findings are discussed relative to prior research and their implications for future research.     

Driving and sustaining culture change in professional sport performance teams: A grounded theory

ObjectivesAs part of the recent upsurge of work on management and organizational factors in elite sports teams, researchers have focused on the team management-led creation and regulation of high performing cultures. The purpose of this study was to therefore add to a recently developed model of culture change best practice in Olympic sports teams, as led and perceived by incoming performance directors, and conceptualize culture change best practice in professional sports teams, as led and perceived by incoming team managers.Design and methodA pragmatic research philosophy and corresponding grounded theory methodology were used to generate a practically-meaningful model of this culture change process from the perspective of UK-based professional team managers.ResultsPerceived best practice in team manager-led culture change was found to involve a finite phase of initial evaluation, planning, and impact adjoined to the enduring management of a holistic, integrated, and dynamic social system. With the former process acting as the catalyst for successful change, this model revealed that optimal change was felt to primarily rely on the constant acquisition, negotiation, and alignment of internal and external stakeholder perceptions.ConclusionsBased on the model's principles, the optimization of professional team culture is defined by a manager's initial actions and never definitively achieved but rather constantly constructed and re-constructed in complex social and power dynamics. Beyond providing a conceptual backdrop for continued research in this area, the model is also a tool on which the practice of professional team managers and their supporting sport psychologists can be based.     

The role of political skill in the stressor–outcome relationship: Differential predictions for self- and other-reports of political skill

The beneficial role of political skill in stress reactions and performance evaluations has been demonstrated in a substantial amount of empirical research. Most of the research, however, has focused on self-perceptions of political skill. This study examines the differential moderating effects of self- vs. other-rated political skill in the conflict – emotional burnout and performance relationships, using two samples including non-academic staff employees of a large university (N = 839) and a variety of office and retail employees from an automotive organization (N = 142). We argue that self-reported political skill moderates the relationship between conflict and a self-reported strain-related outcome that is important to the individual (i.e., emotional burnout), but that supervisor-rated political skill does not moderate this relationship. Further, we argue that supervisor-rated political skill moderates the relationship between conflict and an outcome important to the supervisor and the organization (i.e., job performance), but that self-reported political skill does not moderate this relationship. Findings partially support our hypotheses as both self and supervisor-rated political skill neutralized the negative effects of conflict on burnout, but only supervisor-rated political skill neutralized the negative effects of conflict on performance. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

The impact of physical load on duration estimation in sport

We investigated whether physical load has an influence on the accuracy of duration estimation of sporting activities presented in real time and slow motion. 86 participants were studied in two single sessions of 45 min each.Our results showed no general effects for physical load, when comparing physical load versus rest. However, we could replicate findings of past research (Schütz et al., 2021), showing that the duration of sports performance is estimated more accurately when presented in real time compared to slow motion. Further we found, that under physical load, participants perceiving the physical exercise as hard (RPE ≥15) estimated time significantly shorter and more accurately compared to participants perceiving the physical exercise as light or moderate (RPE <15).Thus, our results suggest that using slow motion may worsen the assessment of sports performance. Additionally, we could show that intense physical exertion contributes to reducing the overestimation of time.     

Situation Awareness in sports: A scoping review

Situation Awareness (SA) has been studied in many dynamic environments such as aviation.transportation, and medicine, but has not been extensively applied to sporting environments. Research from other areas suggests that SA is an important aspect of successful performance. The objectives of this scoping review were to identify what types of SA frameworks are used in sports, what methods are used to directly assess SA in sports, and what are the cognitive skills that have been linked to SA in sports. Seven databases were searched for peer-reviewed papers examining SA in a sporting context. The literature search revealed a scarcity of studies that directly describe SA within a sporting context. The most common frameworks described in the sporting literature were the three-level framework and Distributed Situation Awareness. The direct methods of measuring SA in sports varied and included the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT), Cognition Self-Assessment Tool (CSAT), and Random Number Cognition Test (RANCT) tools. Lastly, the cognitive skills linked to SA in sports included visual behaviours, anticipation, and decision-making. After evaluating the research, we argue there is potential benefit in applying SA to a sporting context but there are, currently, issues of validity and reliability in how SA is described and assessed in sports. Suggestions are made for how we might advance in this field of research.