Athletes' perceptions of how cognitive interference during competition influences concentration and effort

Abstract

This paper investigates athletes' perception of the relationship between cognitive interference and its effects on concentration and effort during sport performance. The sample consisted of 115 volleyball players that took part in a national university tournament. Three different kinds of thoughts were investigated: ‘performance worries’, ‘situation-irrelevant thoughts’, and ‘thoughts of escape’. Path analysis was used to examine the relationships. All kinds of thoughts were reported to be detrimental to concentration, whereas different patterns of associations emerged between different thoughts and subsequent effort. ‘Performance worries’ were reported to be related to increases in effort for athletes holding higher goal attainment expectancies and decreases in effort for athletes holding lower goal attainment expectancies. ‘Thoughts of escape’ were reported to be related to decreases in effort, while no significant relation between ‘situation irrelevant thoughts’ and effort emerged. Results stress the importance of further examining the role of interfering thoughts athletes experience during competition.