My heart is racing! Psychophysiological dynamics of skilled racecar drivers

Our purpose was to test the multi-action plan (MAP) model assumptions in which athletes’ psychophysiological patterns differ among optimal and suboptimal performance experiences. Nine professional drivers competing in premier race categories (e.g., Formula 3, Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge) completed the study. Data collection involved monitoring the drivers’ perceived hedonic tone, accuracy on core components of action, posture, skin temperature, respiration rate, and heart rate responses during a 40-lap simulated race. Time marks, gathered at three standardized sectors, served as the performance variable. The A1GP racing simulator (Allinsport, Modena) established a realistic race platform. Specifically, the Barcelona track was chosen due to its inherently difficult nature characterized by intermittent deceleration points. Idiosyncratic analyses showed large individual differences in the drivers’ psychophysiological profile, as well as distinct patterns in regards to optimal and suboptimal performance experiences. Limitations and future research avenues are discussed. Action (e.g., attentional control) and emotion (e.g., biofeedback training) centered applied sport psychology implications are advanced

Perceived control and hedonic tone dynamics during performance in elite shooters

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the individuals' dynamics of perceived control and hedonic tone over time, with respect to the 4 performance states as conceptualized within the multiaction plan (MAP) model. We expected to find idiosyncratic and differentiated trends over time in the scores of perceived control and hedonic tone, typified by fluctuations among 2 optimal and 2 suboptimal types of processing during performance. Method: Ten elite-level shooters participated in the study. They were asked to identify the most relevant, idiosyncratic core component of their shooting action and perform 120 shots distanced 10 m from the target. Subjective accounts of perceived control and hedonic tone of the core component of action were assessed prior to and after each shot. We used a probabilistic approach to derive the 4 performance categories according to 2 × 2 interactions of perceived control and performance and hedonic tone and performance. Results: Logistic ordinal regression analysis enabled the identification of 4 idiosyncratic performance types for each athlete with respect to perceived control and hedonic tone intensity scores. Within- and between-individual differences in intensity bandwidth and probability levels were apparent across the 4 performance types. Changes among 4 types of processing were also observed during performance. Conclusion: Consistent with the MAP model conceptualization, the findings provided support for the different patterns of perceived control and hedonic tone intensity scores during performance. The results suggest applied arguments for using action- and emotion-centered strategies to help athletes in reaching and sustaining optimal performance states

Athletes’ basic psychological needs and emotions: the role of cognitive reappraisal

In sport, where high achievements are at stake, athletes often feel pressure and emotions that hinder their performance. Emotion regulation becomes essential for athletes to handle stress, achieve optimal performance, and enhance their overall well-being. To advance both research and practical applications, it is crucial to examine the antecedents of emotion regulation and the impact on emotions and other feelings associated with performance. Specifically, the purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the role of athletes’ emotion regulation strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) in the relationship between basic psychological needs satisfaction, emotions, and psychobiosocial experiences. The sample consisted of 424 competitive athletes (246 men and 178 women) involved in individual sports (n = 164; e.g., fencing, gymnastics, martial arts, swimming, and tennis) or team sports (n = 260; e.g., basketball, rugby, soccer, and volleyball), aged 16–36  years (M = 23.08, SD = 7.65). Their competitive experience ranged from 1 to 21  years (M = 9.71, SD = 6.34) at regional (71%), national (18%), or international (11%) level, and they practiced their sport on average 3.74 times a week (SD = 1.73). Participants completed measures of basic needs satisfaction (i.e., competence, autonomy, and relatedness), emotion regulation style, emotions, and psychobiosocial experiences. Structural equation modeling results showed that competence need satisfaction was positively associated with pleasant emotions and psychobiosocial experiences that are perceived as functional for performance, and negatively associated with a maladaptive emotion regulation style (i.e., expressive suppression) and unpleasant emotions. Relatedness need satisfaction was positively related to an adaptive emotion regulation style (i.e., cognitive reappraisal), pleasant emotions, and psychobiosocial experiences, and negatively related to expressive suppression and unpleasant emotions. Finally, mediation analysis showed positive indirect effects from autonomy and relatedness satisfaction to pleasant emotions and psychobiosocial experiences via cognitive reappraisal. Findings suggest that the satisfaction of athletes’ basic psychological needs of autonomy and relatedness is related to the experience of pleasant emotions and functional psychobiosocial states when they adopt an adaptive emotion regulation style

The implementation and evaluation of a media literacy intervention about PAES use in sport science students

With respect to both competitive and amateur/fitness sports, media may strongly influence young people’s opinions and behaviors concerning the use of PAES (Performance and Appearance Enhancing Substances). The present investigation addressed this topic by focusing on sport sciences students’ beliefs concerning the possible role of media related to the implementation and evaluation of a PAES-focus media literacy intervention conducted with sport science students. This study relied on a sample of 521 students (attrition rate 10.3%) (45.1% female, mean age = 22.6, SD = 2.20), which provided baseline data on students’ levels of media literacy concerning the use of PAES (i.e. “descriptive sample”), and a sample of 248 students, who participated in and provided data on the media literacy intervention. This latter sample included a group of 128 students (44.5% female, mean age = 23.03, SD = 3.76) who actively participated in the intervention (i.e. “intervention group”), and a group of 120 students who did not (i.e. “control group”, 53.3% female, mean age = 22.25, SD = 2.47). All students filled out media literacy questionnaires targeting students’ awareness of media influence, their views about the realism of media content, their sense of confidence in dealing with media messages, and their positive attitudes toward PAES use. Analyses of questionnaire data showed that students are relatively aware of media influence on people’s views and behaviors with respect to PAES use. At the same time, students also believed that young people do not consider media as “realistic sources” of information; nonetheless, they also did not consider themselves entirely capable of dealing effectively with media messages. With respect to the intervention, students overall appreciated and greatly welcomed the educational program on media literacy, and the analyses of intervention data across intervention and control groups showed that key media literacy variables changed over time, attesting to the overall effectiveness of the intervention

Emotional Intelligence and Psychobiosocial States: Mediating Effects of Intra-Team Communication and Role Ambiguity

Emotional intelligence is an important variable related to the interaction and functioning of sports teams. The present study examined the relationship between players’ trait emotional intelligence and functional and dysfunctional psychobiosocial states. In particular, we examined the mediating effects of intra-team communication efficacy and role ambiguity in this relationship. The participants were 291 (174 men and 117 women) Italian players involved in various team sports (i.e., futsal, soccer, volleyball, handball, and rugby). They completed a multi-section questionnaire assessing the study variables during the early/middle part of their competitive seasons. Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed trait emotional intelligence to positively predict functional psychobiosocial states and negatively predict dysfunctional psychobiosocial states. Effective intra-team communication mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and functional states, while role ambiguity was a mediator of the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and dysfunctional states. Overall, the results highlight the importance of examining trait emotional intelligence as an antecedent of players’ psychobiosocial states in applied sport contexts both in terms of team functioning and individual optimal sport experience

Recovery and performance in sport: Consensus statement

© 2018 Human Kinetics, Inc. The relationship between recovery and fatigue and its impact on performance has attracted the interest of sport science for many years. An adequate balance between stress (training and competition load, other life demands) and recovery is essential for athletes to achieve continuous high-level performance. Research has focused on the examination of physiological and psychological recovery strategies to compensate external and internal training and competition loads. A systematic monitoring of recovery and the subsequent implementation of recovery routines aims at maximizing performance and preventing negative developments such as underrecovery, nonfunctional overreaching, the overtraining syndrome, injuries, or illnesses. Due to the inter- and intraindividual variability of responses to training, competition, and recovery strategies, a diverse set of expertise is required to address the multifaceted phenomena of recovery, performance, and their interactions to transfer knowledge from sport science to sport practice. For this purpose, a symposium on Recovery and Performance was organized at the Technical University Munich Science and Study Center Raitenhaslach (Germany) in September 2016. Various international experts from many disciplines and research areas gathered to discuss and share their knowledge of recovery for performance enhancement in a variety of settings. The results of this meeting are outlined in this consensus statement that provides central definitions, theoretical frameworks, and practical implications as a synopsis of the current knowledge of recovery and performance. While our understanding of the complex relationship between recovery and performance has significantly increased through research, some important issues for future investigations are also elaborated

Shared mental models and intra-team psychophysiological patterns: A test of the juggling paradigm

We explored implicit coordination mechanisms underlying the conceptual notion of "shared mental models" (SMM) through physiological (i.e., breathing and heart rates) and affective-cognitive (i.e., arousal, pleasantness, attention, self-efficacy, other's efficacy) monitoring of two professional jugglers performing a real-time interactive task of increasing difficulty. There were two experimental conditions: "individual" (i.e., solo task) and "interactive" (i.e., two jugglers established a cooperative interaction by juggling sets of balls with each other). In both conditions, there were two task difficulties: “easy” and “hard”. Descriptive analyses revealed that engaging in a dyadic cooperative motor task (interactive condition) required greater physiological effort (Median Cohen’s d = 2.13) than performing a solo motor task (individual condition) of similar difficulty. Our results indicated a strong positive correlation between the jugglers’ heart rate for the easy (r = .87) and hard tasks (r = .77). The relationship between the jugglers’ breathing rate was significant for the easy task (r = .73) but non-significant for the hard task. The findings are interpreted based on research on SMM and Theory of Mind. Practitioners should advance the notion of “shared-regulation” in the context of team coordination through the use of biofeedback training

Mapping a beautiful voice : theoretical considerations

The prime purpose of this paper is to draw on a range of diverse literatures to clarify those elements thatare perceived to constitute a ‘beautiful’ sung performance. The text rehearses key findings from existingliteratures in order to determine the extent to which particular elements might appear the most salientfor an individual listener and also ‘quantifiable’ (in the sense of being open to empirical study). Thepaper concludes with a theoretical framework for the elements that are likely to construct and shape ourresponses to particular sung performances

Oregano essential oil in the diet of laying hens in winter reduces lipid peroxidation in yolks and increases shelf life in eggs.

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The role of emotions on consumers’ satisfaction within the fitness context

Previous studies have suggested that consumption-related emotions are important to understand post-purchase reactions. This study examines the relationship between fitness consumers’ emotions and overall satisfaction. After an initial step of free-thought listing and content validity, followed by a pre-test, a survey was conducted among consumers of five different fitness centers (n=786). The questionnaire included measures to assess positive and negative emotions, as well as overall satisfaction with the fitness center. The results gathered through a structural equation model provide evidence that negative emotion experienced by consumers impacts negatively overall satisfaction, while positive emotion have a positive effect on overall satisfaction. These findings suggest managerial implications, such as the need to collect consumers’ perceptions of both tangible and intangible aspects of the services, listen costumers’ opinions in a regular basis, and provide regular training to staff members, in order to identify the triggers of positive emotions and contribute to increased levels of overall satisfaction. Guidelines for future research within the fitness context are also suggested.Estudos precedentes sugerem que as emoções relacionadas com o consumo são importantes para compreender as reações dos consumidores após a compra. Este estudo analisa a relação entre as emoções dos consumidores de fitness e satisfação global. Depois de uma etapa inicial de listagem de pensamento-livre e validade de conteúdo, seguido de um pré-teste, foi realizada uma pesquisa entre os consumidores de cinco centros de fitness diferentes (n = 786). O questionário incluiu medidas para avaliar as emoções positivas e negativas, bem como a satisfação global com o centro de fitness. Os resultados obtidos através de um modelo de equações estruturais forneceram evidências de que as emoções negativas vivenciadas pelos consumidores impactam negativamente a satisfação global, enquanto as emoções positivas têm um efeito positivo sobre a satisfação global. Estes resultados sugerem implicações para os gestores, tais como a necessidade de recolher informação sobre a perceção dos consumidores dos aspetos tangíveis e intangíveis dos serviços, ouvir regularmente as opiniões dos consumidores e facultar formação regular aos colaboradores. Isto permitirá identificar os aspetos que desencadeiam emoções positivas e contribuir para o aumento dos níveis de satisfação global. Orientações para futuras pesquisas no contexto de fitness também são sugeridas.Sin financiación0.185 SJR (2015) Q3, 1090/1779 Medicine (miscellaneous); Q4, 177/229 Health (social science), 112/128 Sports scienceUE