The potential benefits of nonspecific goals in physical activity promotion: Comparing open, do-your-best, and as-well-as-possible goals in a walking task

Swann, Christian; Schweickle, Matthew J.; Peoples, Gregory E; Goddard, Scott G.; Stevens, Christopher J; Vella, Stewart A.

doi:10.1080/10413200.2020.1815100

Cited by 10 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…This study adds to a series of experiments investigating the potential benefits of open goals (Hawkins et al, 2020; Schweickle et al, 2017; Swann et al, 2020, 2022) and indicates that open goals may lead to equivalent cognitive performance compared to specific, challenging performance goals. As a possible explanation, open goals (e.g., “see how well you can do”) may lead to optimal, individualized levels of challenge/difficulty .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Schweickle et al (2017) reported that, despite greater perceptions of performance, open goals led to inferior objective performance in a cognitive task compared to specific goals of incrementally increasing difficulty. Further, two studies in physical activity (Swann et al, 2020(Swann et al, , 2022 found no significant difference between open goals and SMART goals on performance. Notably, Hawkins et al (2020) found that performance was better for inactive individuals pursuing an open goal and for active individuals pursuing a SMART goal.…”

Section: Open Goalsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Notably, Hawkins et al (2020) found that performance was better for inactive individuals pursuing an open goal and for active individuals pursuing a SMART goal. As such, the only study to find poorer performance from open goals involved a cognitive task (Schweickle et al, 2017), whereas the other three studies (Hawkins et al, 2020; Swann et al, 2020, 2022) involved physically active tasks. Hence, there is uncertainty around the effects of open goals on performance outcomes—particularly in cognitive tasks.…”

Section: Open Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Examples reported by athletes and exercisers include to "see how well you can do," to "see how big a lead I can build," and to "see how fast I can run 5 kilometres" (Swann et al, 2016(Swann et al, , 2017(Swann et al, , 2019. Their openended, exploratory nature is in contrast to specific goals as well as other forms of nonspecific goal such as to "do-your-best" or to do "as-well-as-possible" (Swann et al, 2022). Since they were first identified among elite golfers, open goals have been reported in qualitative studies with broader samples of athletes (Jackman et al, 2016;Swann et al, 2017) and exercisers (Swann et al, 2019).…”

Section: Open Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Schweickle et al (2017) explored the effects of open goals when completing a cognitive task (Letter Number Identification Task [LNIT]; Hardy & Fazey, 1990), in which participants assigned an open goal (to "see how well you can do") reported significantly greater perceptions of performance and confidence, with a more optimal level of perceived challenge while completing a cognitive task compared to those assigned a specific goal. Following this initial study, experimental examination of open goals has been conducted in the context of physical activity and exercise (Hawkins et al, 2020;Swann et al, 2020Swann et al, , 2022. Similar to the outcomes of open goals during cognitive tasks (Schweickle et al, 2017), the pursuit of open goals appears to have numerous psychological benefits during physical activity.…”

Section: Open Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The effects of open, do-your-best, and specific goals on commitment and cognitive performance.

Pilcher¹,

Schweickle²,

Lawrence³

et al. 2022

Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology

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This study examined the effects of goal types on performance and commitment in a cognitive task. Sixty-six participants (M age = 30.42, SD = 12.25) completed six trials of the Letter Number Identification Task. Participants were given a different goal type for each trial: specific-easy, specific-challenging, specific-unrealistic, open, do-your-best, and a baseline condition (no goal). Open goals and specific-challenging goals both led to significantly greater performance than baseline instructions and do-your-best goals, whereas open goals also led to significantly greater performance than specific-easy and specific-unrealistic goals. Specific, unrealistic goals led to significantly higher performance errors, whereas open goals led to the lowest performance errors (i.e., greatest accuracy) of all goal types. Participants were significantly less committed to specific-unrealistic goals compared with all other goal types, and significantly more committed to do-your-best goals and specific-easy goals compared with baseline instructions. This study adds to accumulating evidence of the potential benefits of open goals and suggests that open goals may be as effective as specific-challenging goals in producing cognitive performance outcomes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Open Goalsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Open Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Open Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Open Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The effects of open, do-your-best, and specific goals on commitment and cognitive performance.

Pilcher¹,

Schweickle²,

Lawrence³

et al. 2022

Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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The influence of self-quantification on individual’s participation performance and behavioral decision-making in physical fitness activities

Zhang,

Xie

et al. 2023

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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As individuals are involved in self-quantification, increasing fields are applying self-quantification with technical support, and a clear understanding of the influencing mechanism and effect boundary of self-quantification is indispensable. Focusing on the field of physical fitness, under different goal settings, the influencing mechanisms of self-quantification on an individual’s participation performance (outcome, experience, persistence intention) and behavioral decision-making (category selection, novelty-seeking) are analyzed and confirmed. The results show that when there is no goal, self-quantification will enhance outcome salience, thus enhancing the individual’s participation outcome and selection for highly healthy categories; self-quantification will reduce perceived enjoyment, thus damaging participation experience and novelty-seeking, but does not affect the persistence intention. When there is a goal, self-quantification will enhance perceived certainty, thus reducing the individual’s participation outcome and selection for highly healthy categories; self-quantification will enhance perceived enjoyment, thus improving the participation experience, persistence intention, and novelty-seeking. Compared to descriptive analysis of phenomena, through laboratory and field experiments, this research confirms the influencing mechanism and effect boundary of self-quantification on an individual’s activity participation performance in real situations. This provides a theoretical basis for understanding the targeted behavioral decision-making patterns of individuals in different types of self-quantification activities.

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SMART goals are no more effective for creative performance than do-your-best goals or non-specific, exploratory ‘open goals’

Pietsch,

Riddell,

Semmler

et al. 2024

Educational Psychology

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The potential benefits of nonspecific goals in physical activity promotion: Comparing open, do-your-best, and as-well-as-possible goals in a walking task

Cited by 10 publications

References 36 publications

The effects of open, do-your-best, and specific goals on commitment and cognitive performance.

The effects of open, do-your-best, and specific goals on commitment and cognitive performance.

The influence of self-quantification on individual’s participation performance and behavioral decision-making in physical fitness activities

SMART goals are no more effective for creative performance than do-your-best goals or non-specific, exploratory ‘open goals’

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