Effects of Implementation Intentions on Anxiety, Perceived Proximity, and Motor Performance

Stern, Chadly; Cole, Shana; Gollwitzer, Peter M.; Oettingen, Gabriele; Balcetis, Emily

doi:10.1177/0146167213479612

Cited by 28 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(87 reference statements)

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“…Second, we use counterintuitive behavioral responses as dependent measures, such that even if participants guessed the purpose of the study, they would not know how to respond to support the hypotheses (e.g., Balcetis & Dunning 2010;Stern et al 2013). For example, participants estimated the distance to a desirable (chocolates) or undesirable object (dog feces) by moving themselves to stand a set, referent distance away from it (Balcetis & Dunning 2010, Study 3b).…”

Section: Open Peer Commentarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognition does not affect perception: Evaluating the evidence for “top-down” effects

Firestone¹,

Scholl²

2015

Behav Brain Sci

780

764

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Abstract:What determines what we see? In contrast to the traditional "modular" understanding of perception, according to which visual processing is encapsulated from higher-level cognition, a tidal wave of recent research alleges that states such as beliefs, desires, emotions, motivations, intentions, and linguistic representations exert direct, top-down influences on what we see. There is a growing consensus that such effects are ubiquitous, and that the distinction between perception and cognition may itself be unsustainable. We argue otherwise: None of these hundreds of studies -either individually or collectively -provides compelling evidence for true top-down effects on perception, or "cognitive penetrability." In particular, and despite their variety, we suggest that these studies all fall prey to only a handful of pitfalls. And whereas abstract theoretical challenges have failed to resolve this debate in the past, our presentation of these pitfalls is empirically anchored: In each case, we show not only how certain studies could be susceptible to the pitfall (in principle), but also how several alleged top-down effects actually are explained by the pitfall (in practice). Moreover, these pitfalls are perfectly general, with each applying to dozens of other top-down effects. We conclude by extracting the lessons provided by these pitfalls into a checklist that future work could use to convincingly demonstrate top-down effects on visual perception. The discovery of substantive top-down effects of cognition on perception would revolutionize our understanding of how the mind is organized; but without addressing these pitfalls, no such empirical report will license such exciting conclusions.

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Section: Open Peer Commentarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognition does not affect perception: Evaluating the evidence for “top-down” effects

Firestone¹,

Scholl²

2015

Behav Brain Sci

780

764

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Moreover, detailed studies on the effects of perceptual biases on motor behavior that include kinematics and performance outcomes would be useful. Stern et al [22] indicated that reducing anxiety under pressure by using an implementation intention strategy led to performance improvements along with compensation for the distance perception bias in golf-putting and dart-throwing tasks. This suggests that psychological skills for reducing state anxiety might play a key role in developing optimal perception and action under high pressure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological Pressure Distorts High Jumpers’ Perception of the Height of the Bar

Tanaka

Sasaki

Karakida

et al. 2018

JFMK

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Abstract:The effects of psychological pressure on perceiving the height of a jump bar just before starting a high jump run was investigated. University students (n = 14) training for a high jump event performed 15 trials (3 practice, 6 high-pressure, and 6 low-pressure) in counterbalanced order in their daily practice environment. The height of the bar was judged as significantly higher on high-pressure trials compared to low-pressure trials (p = 0.030). A regression analysis indicated that participants who reported increased subjective perceived pressure tended to judge the bar to be higher (r = 0.468, p = 0.091). There was no significant difference between high-pressure and low-pressure trials for the performance index, defined as the success rate (p = 0.209). This study provides the first evidence that environmental perceptions prior to executing a motor task under pressure may make performance of the task appear to be more difficult.

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“…Bieleke et al (2020) argue that the effectiveness of if-then plans might be enhanced by tailoring if-then plans to athletesthat is, instructing exercisers to generate their own plan contents geared towards their personal obstacles and strategies to deal with them. For example, studies using if-then plans with no particular obstacle in non-endurance domains (e.g., Tennis; Achtziger et al, 2008;or Golf and Darts;Stern et al, 2013) observed rather consistent positive effects on performance. In the present study, we therefore utilized the information on obstacles and strategies that we elicited from participants to help exercisers generate individually tailored if-then plans.…”

Section: Optimizing Performance With Tailored Self-regulatory Intervementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on the previously observed biennial effects of self-generated if-then planning on performance (Achtziger et al, 2008;Stern et al, 2013), we expected that this approach leads to improved performance in the if-then plan condition compared to the goal intention condition in the second session.…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Struggles and Strategies in Anaerobic and Aerobic Cycling Tests: A Mixed-Method Approach With a Focus on Tailored Self-Regulation Strategies

Hirsch¹,

Bieleke²,

Bertschinger³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Endurance sports pose a plethora of psychological demands that athletes have to deal with. Unfortunately, fine-grained investigations of these demands and strategies for coping with them are lacking, severely limiting our knowledge about endurance performance. Here, we investigated the obstacles exercisers experienced during an anaerobic (Wingate test) and an aerobic cycling test (incremental exercise test), as well as the strategies they considered helpful for dealing with these obstacles. In addition, we tested whether if-then plans (i.e., implementation intentions) capitalizing on these obstacles and strategies improved performance in the corresponding tests. N = 59 students (age: M = 23.9 years, SD = 6.5) performed both tests twice in a 2-within (Session: 1 vs. 2) × 2-between (Condition: goal intention vs. implementation intention) design. Obstacles and strategies were assessed using structured interviews after Session 1 and analyzed with thematic analyses. In both tests, feelings of exertion were the most frequently stated obstacle. Motivation to do well in the test, motivation through self-encouragement, as well as focusing on certain body parts and cycling technique were other frequently stated strategies in both tests. There were also test-specific obstacles, such as boredom reported in the aerobic test. The efficacy of tailored if-then plans on endurance performance was analyzed with Bayesian mixed-factor ANOVA. The results suggest that making if-then plans did not help exercisers to improve their performance. These findings shed novel light into the mental processes accompanying physical exercise and contribute to an emerging literature on if-then planning in the exercise context.

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Effects of Implementation Intentions on Anxiety, Perceived Proximity, and Motor Performance

Cited by 28 publications

References 49 publications

Cognition does not affect perception: Evaluating the evidence for “top-down” effects

Cognition does not affect perception: Evaluating the evidence for “top-down” effects

Psychological Pressure Distorts High Jumpers’ Perception of the Height of the Bar

Struggles and Strategies in Anaerobic and Aerobic Cycling Tests: A Mixed-Method Approach With a Focus on Tailored Self-Regulation Strategies

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