The contribution and interplay of implicit and explicit processes on physical activity behavior: empirical testing of the physical activity adoption and maintenance (PAAM) model.

The adoption and maintenance of physical activity (PA) is an important health behavior. This paper presents the first comprehensive empirical test of the Physical Activity Adoption and Maintenance (PAAM) model, which proposes that a combination of explicit (e.g., intention) and implicit (e.g., habit,, affect) self-regulatory processes is involved in PA adoption and maintenance. Data were collected via online questionnaires in English, German, and Italian at two measurement points four weeks apart. The study included 422 participants (Mage= 25.3, SDage= 10.1; 74.2% women) from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, and the U.S. The study results largely supported the assumptions of the PAAM model, indicating that intentions and habits significantly mediate the effects of past PA on future PA. In addition, the effect of past PA on future PA was shown to be significant through a mediation chain involving affect and habit. Although the hypothesis that trait self-regulation moderates the intention-behavior relationship was not supported, a significant moderating effect of affect on the same relationship was observed. The results suggest that interventions targeting both explicit and implicit processes may be effective in promoting PA adoption and maintenance.

The Effect of Immediacy of Expected Goal Feedback on Persistence in a Physical Task.

Minimizing the temporal gap between behavior and reward enhances persistence, but the effect of other outcomes is unknown. Two concurrently run studies aimed to investigate whether persistence on a physical task would be influenced according to whether participants expected immediate versus delayed goal feedback. Furthermore, whether this effect occurs via intrinsic motivation (Studies 1 and 2) or delaying the desire-goal conflict (Study 2) was examined. Using a counterbalanced within-person design, 34 participants in each study (Study 1: 16 males, 18 females; Study 2: 15 males, 19 females) completed two wall-sit persistence tasks, one with immediate feedback expected (regarding the participant's position on a leader board) and the other with feedback expected to be provided 1 week later. A two-way mixed analysis of variance found no significant differences in persistence between conditions in either study. Furthermore, no indirect effects were found via intrinsic motivation or delayed desire-goal conflict. Study findings did not support the hypothesis that the timing of expected feedback enhances persistence.

Can You Tell Who Scores? An Assessment of the Recognition of Affective States Based on the Nonverbal Behavior of Amateur Tennis Players in Competitive Matches.

The purpose of the present study was to assess whether the recognition of tennis players' affective state associated with their nonverbal behavior would be influenced by (a) the importance of the situation, (b) the point outcome, and (c) the tennis expertise of the observer. Two hundred sixty-nine participants (Mage = 30.51 years; 116 female; 79 tennis club members) watched video excerpts showing the nonverbal behavior of amateur tennis players during competitive matches immediately after the end of a rally and were asked to estimate whether the player had just won or lost the point. Results indicate that the recognition rates were higher for situations closer to the end of a game, closer to the end of a set, and with a tighter score during a game. Moreover, recognition rates were higher for lost than for won points, while the tennis expertise of participants had no influence on the recognition rates.

How Much Do Severely Injured Athletes Experience Sport Injury-Related Growth? Contrasting Psychological, Situational, and Demographic Predictors.

Sport injury-related growth (SIRG) describes the possibility for athletes to benefit psychologically from an injury. The present, preregistered online study examined an international sample of 335 athletes with impressive athletic biographies who sustained a severe sport-related injury. Expanding the extant literature, we empirically contrasted numerous psychological, situational, and demographic predictors of perceived SIRG-specifically, athletes' optimism, coping style, self-efficacy, athletic identity, social support, need satisfaction, and injury centrality. Our data first provide empirical evidence for perceived SIRG, even when statistically controlling for a potential social-desirability bias in athletes' responses. In addition, frequentist and Bayesian regression analyses showed that several psychological variables predicted perceived SIRG-particularly athletes' informational social support, positive reframing, optimism, and injury centrality. Finally, post hoc mediation analyses showed how these psychological variables account for different levels of perceived SIRG as a function of demographic variables. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, along with directions for future research.

Task duration and task order do not matter: no effect on self-control performance.

The strength model of self-control proposes that all acts of self-control are energized by one global limited resource that becomes temporarily depleted by a primary self-control task, leading to impaired self-control performance in secondary self-control tasks. However, failed replications have cast doubt on the existence of this so-called ego depletion effect. Here, we investigated between-task (i.e., variation in self-control tasks) and within-task variation (i.e., task duration) as possible explanations for the conflicting literature on ego depletion effects. In a high-powered experiment (N = 709 participants), we used two established self-control tasks (Stroop task, transcription task) to test how variations in the duration of primary and secondary self-control tasks (2, 4, 8, or 16 min per task) affect the occurrence of an ego depletion effect (i.e., impaired performance in the secondary task). In line with the ego depletion hypothesis, subjects perceived longer lasting secondary tasks as more self-control demanding. Contrary to the ego depletion hypothesis, however, performance did neither suffer from prior self-control exertion, nor as a function of task duration. If anything, performance tended to improve when the primary self-control task lasted longer. These effects did not differ between the two self-control tasks, suggesting that the observed null findings were independent of task type.

Ego depletion and attention regulation under pressure: is a temporary loss of self-control strength indeed related to impaired attention regulation?

In the current study we investigated whether ego depletion negatively affects attention regulation under pressure in sports by assessing participants' dart throwing performance and accompanying gaze behavior. According to the strength model of self-control, the most important aspect of self-control is attention regulation. Because higher levels of state anxiety are associated with impaired attention regulation, we chose a mixed design with ego depletion (yes vs. no) as between-subjects and anxiety level (high vs. low) as within-subjects factor. Participants performed a perceptual-motor task requiring selective attention, namely, dart throwing. In line with our expectations, depleted participants in the high-anxiety condition performed worse and displayed a shorter final fixation on bull's eye, demonstrating that when one's self-control strength is depleted, attention regulation under pressure cannot be maintained. This is the first study that directly supports the general assumption that ego depletion is a major factor in influencing attention regulation under pressure.

The effect of ego depletion on sprint start reaction time.

In the current study, we consider that optimal sprint start performance requires the self-control of responses. Therefore, start performance should depend on athletes' self-control strength. We assumed that momentary depletion of self-control strength (ego depletion) would either speed up or slow down the initiation of a sprint start, where an initiation that was sped up would carry the increased risk of a false start. Applying a mixed between- (depletion vs. nondepletion) and within- (before vs. after manipulation of depletion) subjects design, we tested the start reaction times of 37 sport students. We found that participants' start reaction times decelerated after finishing a depleting task, whereas it remained constant in the nondepletion condition. These results indicate that sprint start performance can be impaired by unrelated preceding actions that lower momentary self-control strength. We discuss practical implications in terms of optimizing sprint starts and related overall sprint performance.

Anxiety, ego depletion, and sports performance.

In the present article, we analyzed the role of self-control strength and state anxiety in sports performance. We tested the hypothesis that self-control strength and state anxiety interact in predicting sports performance on the basis of two studies, each using a different sports task (Study 1: performance in a basketball free throw task, N = 64; Study 2: performance in a dart task, N = 79). The patterns of results were as expected in both studies: Participants with depleted self-control strength performed worse in the specific tasks as their anxiety increased, whereas there was no significant relation for participants with fully available self-control strength. Furthermore, different degrees of available self-control strength did not predict performance in participants who were low in state anxiety, but did in participants who were high in state anxiety. Thus increasing self-control strength could reduce the negative anxiety effects in sports and improve athletes' performance under pressure.

Tracking Self-Control - Task Performance and Pupil Size in a Go/No-Go Inhibition Task.

There is an ongoing debate about how to test and operationalize self-control. This limited understanding is in large part due to a variety of different tests and measures used to assess self-control, as well as the lack of empirical studies examining the temporal dynamics during the exertion of self-control. In order to track changes that occur over the course of exposure to a self-control task, we investigate and compare behavioral, subjective, and physiological indicators during the exertion of self-control. Participants completed both a task requiring inhibitory control (Go/No-Go task) and a control task (two-choice task). Behavioral performance and pupil size were measured during the tasks. Subjective vitality was measured before and after the tasks. While pupil size and subjective vitality showed similar trajectories in the two tasks, behavioral performance decreased in the inhibitory control-demanding task, but not in the control task. However, behavioral, subjective, and physiological measures were not significantly correlated. These results suggest that there is a disconnect between different measures of self-control with high intra- and interindividual variability. Theoretical and methodological implications for self-control theory and future empirical work are discussed.

How task experience influences students' performance expectancies: the role of certainty.

The importance of performance expectancies for predicting behavior has long been highlighted in research on expectancy-value models. These models do not take into account that expectancies may vary in terms of their certainty. The study tested the following predictions: task experience leads to a higher certainty of expectancies; certainty and mean expectancies are empirically distinguishable; and expectancies held with high certainty are more accurate for predicting performance. 273 Grade 8 students reported their performance expectancy and the certainty of expectation with regard to a mathematics examination immediately before and after the examination. Actual grades on the examination were also assessed. The results supported the predictions: there was an increase in certainty between the two times of measurement; expectancies and certainty were unrelated at both times of measurement; and for students initially reporting higher certainty, the accuracy of the performance expectancy (i.e., the relation between expectancy and performance) was higher than for students reporting lower certainty. Given lower certainty, the accuracy increased after the students had experience with the examination. The data indicate that it may be useful to include certainty as an additional variable in expectancy-value models.

Testing the Effects of a Preceding Self-Control Task on Decision-Making in Soccer Refereeing.

The present study tested the assumption that the momentary level of self-control strength affects the accuracy rates in a sports-related judgment and decision-making task. A total of N = 27 participants rated the veracity of 28 video-taped statements of soccer players who were interviewed by a non-visible referee after a critical game-related situation. In half of the videos, the players were lying, and in the other half, they were telling the truth. Participants were tested twice: once with temporarily depleted self-control strength and once with temporarily available self-control strength (order counterbalanced; measurements separated by exactly 7 days). Self-control strength was experimentally manipulated with the Stroop task. In line with two-process models of information processing, we hypothesized that under ego depletion, information is processed in a rather heuristic manner, leading to lower accuracy rates. Contrary to our expectations, the level of temporarily available self-control strength did not have an effect on accuracy rates. Limitations and implications for future research endeavors are discussed.

Elites Do Not Deplete - No Effect of Prior Mental Exertion on Subsequent Shooting Performance in Elite Shooters.

In order to perform at the highest level, elite shooters have to remain focused during the whole course of a tournament, which regularly lasts multiple hours. Investing self-control over extended time periods is often associated with lower levels of perceived self-control strength (i.e., the subjective estimation of how much mental effort one is capable of investing in a given task) and impaired performance in several sports-related domains. However, previous findings on the effects of prior self-control efforts on shooting performance have been mixed, as elite shooters seem to be less affected by preceding self-control demanding tasks than sub-elite athletes. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of self-control on shooting performance in elite shooters. Hence, we randomly assigned elite shooters to an experimental (n = 12) or a control condition (n = 11) and asked them to perform a series of 40 shots at baseline (T1) and again after a task which either did or did not require self-control (T2). Additionally, we continuously measured the shooters' level of perceived self-control strength. We assumed that in elite athletes, shooting accuracy as well as the perceived level of self-control strength would not be significantly affected over time from T1 to T2 in both conditions. In line with our assumptions, Bayesian linear mixed effect models revealed that shooting performance remained relatively stable in both conditions over time and the conditions also did not differ significantly in their perceived levels of self-control strength. Contrary to resource-based theories of self-control, these results speak against the idea of a limited self-control resource as previous acts of self-control did not impair subsequent shooting performance in elite athletes.

"Are You Telling the Truth?" - Testing Individuals' Ability to Differentiate Between Truth and Deceit in Soccer.

In the present paper, we tested the ability of individuals to judge correctly whether athletes are lying or telling the truth. For this purpose, we first generated 28 videos as stimulus material: in half of the videos, soccer players were telling the truth, while in the other half, the same soccer players were lying. Next, we tested the validity of these video clips by asking N = 65 individuals in a laboratory experiment (Study 1a) and N = 52 individuals in an online experiment (Study 1b) to rate the level of veracity of each video clip. Results suggest that participants can distinguish between true and false statements, but only for some clips and not for others, indicating that some players were better at deceiving than others. In Study 2, participants again had to make veracity estimations, but we manipulated the level of information given, as participants (N = 145) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (regular video clips, mute video clips, and only the audio stream of each statement). The results revealed that participants from the mute condition were less accurate in their veracity ratings. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Creative Flexibility Performance Is Neither Related to Anxiety, Nor to Self-Control Strength, Nor to Their Interaction.

Previous research has reliably found that self-control strength moderates the anxiety-performance relationship for cognitive and perceptual-motor tasks that involve executive functioning. In the present preregistered experiment (N = 200; https://aspredicted.org/a775h.pdf), we investigated whether the interaction of anxiety and self-control also predicts creative flexibility performance. According to the Attentional Control Theory, anxiety can impair executive functioning. In the case that creative flexibility relies on executive functions, anxiety should therefore interfere with creative flexibility performance. However, self-control strength has been demonstrated to serve as a buffer against the negative effects of anxiety on executive functioning. Therefore, we assumed that there will be a negative relationship between anxiety and creative flexibility performance, and that this negative relationship would be more pronounced for participants who are low compared to high in momentary self-control strength. Analogous to the previous studies, we manipulated the participants' self-control strength (ego depletion vs. no depletion) and subsequently induced a potentially threatening test situation. The participants then completed a measure of their state anxiety and a standardized test of creative flexibility. Contrary to our expectation, self-control strength, state anxiety, and their interaction did not predict creative flexibility performance. Complementary Bayesian hypothesis testing revealed strong support for the null hypothesis. Therefore, we conclude that, at least under certain conditions, creative flexibility performance may be unrelated to resource-dependent executive functions.

Testing the validity of the attention control video: An eye-tracking approach of the ego depletion effect.

The attention control video has been frequently applied to test the ego depletion effect. However, its validity has never been tested, a shortcoming we address in this preregistered study. In the first task, self-control strength was temporarily depleted in the depletion condition (n = 56) but remained intact in the control condition (n = 56). The attention control video served as the secondary task, and we assumed that the depletion condition would perform significantly worse compared to the control condition. Attention regulation was measured with an eye-tracking device. The results revealed that the gaze behavior in the two conditions differed statistically significantly; however, the actual difference was small, indicating that the attention control video may not be an optimal measure of self-control.

Self-reports from behind the scenes: Questionable research practices and rates of replication in ego depletion research.

The strength model of self-control is one of the most influential and well-established models of self-regulation in social psychology. However, recent attempts to replicate the ego depletion effect have sometimes failed. The goal of this study is to investigate self-reported replication rates and the frequency of a set of questionable research practices (QRP) in ego depletion research. A literature search resulted in 1721 researchers who had previously published on ego depletion. They were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey. The respondents (n = 277), on average, had published over three papers on ego depletion, and had completed more than two additional, unpublished studies. Respondents indicated that in more than 40% of their studies, results were similar in magnitude to those reported in the existing literature, and more than 60% reported conducting a priori power analyses. 39.2% of respondents were aware of other researchers who engaged in the surveyed QRP's, while 37.7% affirmed to have employed said QRP's. These results underline the importance of reducing QRP's to reliably test the validity of the ego depletion effect.

Ego depletion in sports: highlighting the importance of self-control strength for high-level sport performance.

Athletes are constantly confronted with self-control demands, but previous research has delivered sound empirical evidence that athletes are not always capable of dealing with these demands. According to the strength model of self-control, individuals have a limited amount of self-control strength, which can become temporarily depleted following self-control demands (e.g., attention regulation). When self-control strength is depleted, that is, in a state of ego depletion, athletes are less persistent during strenuous physical exercise, are less likely to follow their exercise regimens, and tend to perform worse under pressure. The aim of this review article is to highlight the importance of ego depletion in the field of sports and exercise and to discuss the recent research and controversies surrounding it.

Too Exhausted to Perform at the Highest Level? On the Importance of Self-control Strength in Educational Settings.

In order to perform at the highest level in educational settings (e.g., students in testing situations), individuals often have to control their impulses or desires (e.g., to study for an upcoming test or to prepare a course instead of spending time with the peer group). Previous research suggests that the ability to exert self-control is an important predictor of performance and behavior in educational contexts. According to the strength model, all self-control acts are based on one global energy pool whose capacity is assumed to be limited. After having performed a first act of self-control, this resource can become temporarily depleted which negatively affects subsequent self-control. In such a state of ego depletion, individuals tend to display impaired concentration and academic performance, fail to meet academic deadlines, or even disengage from their duties. In this mini-review, we report recent studies on ego depletion which have focused on children as well as adults in educational settings, derive practical implications for how to improve self-control strength in the realm of education and instruction, and discuss limitations regarding the assumptions of the strength model of self-control.

The Strength Model of Self-Control in Sport and Exercise Psychology.

The strength model of self-control assumes that all acts of self-control (e.g., emotion regulation, persistence) are empowered by a single global metaphorical strength that has limited capacity. This strength can become temporarily depleted after a primary self-control act, which, in turn, can impair performance in subsequent acts of self-control. Recently, the assumptions of the strength model of self-control also have been adopted and tested in the field of sport and exercise psychology. The present review paper aims to give an overview of recent developments in self-control research based on the strength model of self-control. Furthermore, recent research on interventions on how to improve and revitalize self-control strength will be presented. Finally, the strength model of self-control has been criticized lately, as well as expanded in scope, so the present paper will also discuss alternative explanations of why previous acts of self-control can lead to impaired performance in sport and exercise.