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Inhibitory control may be vital in elite sport. The authors examined the link between athletic expertise, inhibitory control, and sport performance in a two-part quasi experiment. Inhibitory control was indexed using the Stop-Signal Task, athlete expertise was categorized on literary recommendations, and sport performance was assessed using athlete and coach ratings. Study 1 examined cross-sectional and longitudinal patterns of inhibitory control across athletic expertise. Study 2 investigated whether the inhibitory control–sport performance relationship was moderated by expertise. Study 1 showed that expertise was linked to greater inhibitory control cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Study 2 revealed that expertise was related to superior performance on the Stop-Signal Task and athlete and coach performance ratings, and this relationship was moderated by athletic expertise. Inhibitory control relates to sport performance, increases with greater athlete expertise, and develops longitudinally. Long-term participation in sport may bring about changes in inhibitory control, which may lead to improved sport performance.

The authors investigated the effects of respite–active music (i.e., music used for active recovery in between high-intensity exercise bouts) on psychological and psychophysiological outcomes. Participants (N = 24) made four laboratory visits for a habituation, medium- and fast-tempo music conditions, and a no-music control. A high-intensity interval-training protocol comprising 8 × 60-s exercise bouts at 100% W _max with 90-s active recovery was administered. Measures were taken at the end of exercise bouts and recovery periods (rating of perceived exertion [RPE], state attention, and core affect) and then upon cessation of the protocol (enjoyment and remembered pleasure). Heart rate was measured throughout. Medium-tempo music enhanced affective valence during exercise and recovery, while both music conditions increased dissociation (only during recovery), enjoyment, and remembered pleasure relative to control. Medium-tempo music lowered RPE relative to control, but the heart rate results were inconclusive. As predicted, medium-tempo music, in particular, had a meaningful effect on a range of psychological outcomes.

Background: Given the limited research on behavioral determinants of using virtual exercise machines to engage in exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study applied an integrated behavior change model to identify behavioral determinants using these machines. Method: Adult owners of livestreaming virtual exercise equipment (N = 123) completed measures of social cognition, planning, motivation, virtual exercise machine features, and sociostructural variables at an initial occasion (T1) and 4 weeks later (T2). Hypothesized relations among model constructs were tested using a cross-lagged structural equation model with past behavior and sociostructural variables as covariates. Results: Autonomous motivation predicted intentions and habit indirectly via attitudes and perceived behavioral control at T1; virtual exercise machine features predicted intention and habit indirectly via social cognition constructs at T1; and intention and habit at T1 predicted exercise behavior at T2. Conclusions: This study supports social cognition constructs and virtual features as predictors of exercise using virtual exercise machines.

This study examined the home advantage effect in decisive National Basketball Association Conference Finals and Finals series playoff games from 1979 to 2019 (the 3-point shot era). We also examined the potential contribution of various offensive- and defensive-based skills and whether these skills mediated the relationship between game status (decisive vs. nondecisive) and outcome (win vs. loss). Overall, we found evidence of a home court advantage with the home team winning 63% of the decisive playoff games and 66% of the nondecisive playoff games. After adjusting for multiple comparisons and regular season win percentage, the home team had significantly more defensive rebounds and steals in Game 5 when trailing 3–1 going into that game. Mediation analyses did not reveal any significant findings when examining the impact of decisive game status on performance through offensive and defensive skills, thus suggesting there are other explanations for the home advantage effect.

The aim of this study was to apply the Multi-Process Action Control model to examine how the additions of regulatory and reflexive processes predict physical activity (PA) behaviors among adolescents. Our sample included 1,176 Grade 11 students (M _age = 15.85 ± 0.38) recruited from a large school board in Southern Ontario. Participants completed a questionnaire including measures of self-reported PA and PA cognitions derived from the Multi-Process Action Control model. Results found the reflective process explaining 16.5% of the variance in PA, with the additions of regulatory and reflexive processes significantly improving the explained variance by 5.1% and 8.2%, respectively. Final models revealed coping planning (estimate = 45.10, p = .047), identity (estimate = 55.82, p < .001), and habit (estimate = 64.07, p < .001) as significant predictors of PA. Findings reinforce the need for integrative models to better understand PA, with coping planning, habit formation, and development of an active identity to be salient targets for intervention during adolescence.

When given opportunities for personal glory in individual settings, people high in narcissism excel. However, less is known about narcissists’ influence in team contexts. Across two studies (utilizing cross-sectional and two-wave longitudinal designs) involving 706 athletes from 68 teams in total, we tested a conceptual model linking narcissism to task cohesion, via intragroup conflict, moderated by narcissistic group composition. We tested a new sports-oriented measure of intragroup conflict using Bayesian estimation and evaluated our theorizing using a multilevel conditional indirect effect hybrid model. Across both studies, we found that narcissism influenced perceptions of task cohesion via process conflict only, with a negative influence at low narcissistic group composition that was weakened (Study 1) or nullified (Study 2) at high narcissistic team composition. Collectively, these findings offer the first example of how narcissism influences task cohesion in team settings and the contextual effects of narcissistic group composition.

Badminton players have a plastic modification of their arm representation in the brain due to the prolonged use of their racket. However, it is not known whether their arm representation can be altered through short-term visuotactile integration. The neural representation of the body is easily altered when multiple sensory signals are integrated in the brain. One of the most popular experimental paradigms for investigating this phenomenon is the “rubber hand illusion.” This study was designed to investigate the effect of prolonged use of a racket on the modulation of arm representation during the rubber hand illusion in badminton players. When badminton players hold the racket, their badminton experience in years is negatively correlated with the magnitude of the rubber hand illusion. This finding suggests that tool embodiment obtained by the prolonged use of the badminton racket is less likely to be disturbed when holding the racket.