How limited cognitive resources impact the attentional effects of self-talk: An eye-tracking study in dart

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate whether self-talk could enhance participants’ motor performance and attention, even in the presence of distracting interferences and while experiencing ego depletion. To achieve this, 43 novices were randomly assigned into a self-talk group and a control group. Only the self-talk group received the self-talk intervention, and all participants performed a dart throwing task after experiencing ego depletion. In addition, noise interference was added during the dart throwing process. The results indicated that, as predicted, participants in the self-talk group showed enhanced attention functions and more stable motor performance compared to the control group participants, which supports the attentional effect of self-talk. The findings also have practical implications for coaches and athletes. Future research should further use brain science methods to reveal the attentional mechanism by which self-talk improves motor performance when cognitive resources are extremely low and the moderating role of motor experience in this.